TN Lawmaker Hosts Raccoon Dinner

[Guest guest]

Is this article for real? For years, the raccoon feast

was off limits to women.

 

Tenn. Lawmaker Hosts Coon Dinner

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/ap/20020420/ap_on_re_us/coon_supp\

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The Naifeh family's annual " Coon Supper " started in

1945 as an informal gathering of 15 or so raccoon

hunters and their friends.

 

 

This week, the supper hosted by state House Speaker

Jimmy Naifeh and his brother Joe drew nearly 2,000

guests — including the governor and candidates for the

state's top political offices — to mingle on the

Covington Country Club lawn and feast on 75-80

barbecued raccoons.

 

" It's not bad, " said Dick Ritchie of Cordova after

taking a bite. " I'm not a fan of wild meat, but it's

not gamey. They must do something to sweeten it. "

 

But the main attraction of the annual supper isn't the

coon. It's the politics.

 

" When Dad (the late Oney Naifeh) first started this,

it gave people the opportunity to communicate with

their congressman and legislators, " Jimmy Naifeh said.

" Today it's easy with e-mail, but back then it

wasn't. "

 

When his father and a brother died in 2000, the

Naifehs almost ended the suppers. But pleas from those

who had attended kept the tradition going.

 

So as children frolicked on a nearby putting green,

candidates handed out stickers and talked about their

campaigns.

 

Among them were former U.S. education secretary and

Republican presidential hopeful Lamar Alexander (news

- web sites) and U.S. Rep. Bob Clement (news, bio,

voting record), both running for the U.S. Senate.

 

" I'm a regular, " said Clement, a Nashville Democrat

whose family has long been friends with the Naifehs.

" I even eat coon. A lot of these people are

Johnny-come-latelys. They don't know how to embrace

coon or hold coon or eat coon. "

 

Former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) also

has been to several coon suppers but had a conflict

this year.

 

Although the area is traditionally Democratic, there

were an equal number of Republicans at this week's

supper.

 

" It's a nonpartisan thing. We have too many friends

that are both, " said Joe Naifeh, a local businessman.

 

For years, though, the event was off limits to

females.

 

Rep. Lois DeBerry (news, bio, voting record), the

state House speaker pro tem, unintentionally broke the

gender barrier about two decades ago.

 

She had hitched a ride home to Memphis from the

capital with two other legislators who said they had

to stop at the coon supper, bought her a Coke and bag

of potato chips, and told her to stay in the car.

 

" So I sat in the back of that car and Jimmy's daddy

came over, " DeBerry recalled. " And Mr. Oney said, `You

get out of that car.' And I said, `Oh, no, I can't do

that.' "

 

But he and Ned McWherter, who was the state House

speaker at the time and later became governor, made

her come in, she said.

 

" There was no negative reaction. But I never did eat

any coon because I figured there had to be something

in the coon that does something to women, " she said

with a laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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