Down to the Lick Log

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you?

Hi, doing fine. Who’s this?

This is Bill Stone calling from Dallas, Texas.

Hey, Bill. Welcome.

What’s up? What’s going on?

So I’m a business attorney in Dallas, and that means I handle business transactions like helping people buy and sell businesses.

There’s this term that comes up when we work on those transactions as we’re getting near the end, and it’s called down to the lick log.

And I’ve heard it many, many times, and everybody acts like they know what it means, and I kind of know what it means just from context, but I’ve never really understood where it came from.

It seems to mean that either you’re down to kind of the last few steps before being ready to sign and close, or you’re down to a deadline that you have to make a decision or the deal will die.

And, Bill, do you hear this usually among attorneys or anybody else?

Mostly among attorneys, although I’ve heard attorneys use it with their clients.

I’ve used it with mine.

You have.

And do they know what you’re talking about when you say you’re down to the lick log?

I guess.

Well, we’ve got some information on that for sure.

A lick log, do you ever run cattle or work on a farm with cattle?

No, I have not.

Well, cattle require salt, and so sometimes you put out a salt block for them.

But in the old days, they would take salt, and they would put it in notched holes on a log lying on the ground.

And what will happen is the cattle will congregate around it.

They’ll come every now and again.

And it’s pretty much a good place to find your cattle when you’re looking for your cattle if you’ve got a big spread.

They’re over at the lick log.

Yeah, they’re over at the lick log.

Pretty much cattle are going to check in there every couple days or so.

What that means is it became also a place for humans to say, I will meet you at the lick log.

This is a place that you could find somebody.

And also, sometimes it was a place where you would go to make those big decisions.

You’d say, I will see you at the lick log, and we will settle this.

Like, am I going to sell you the 20 acres that you want?

Are we going to swap cattle?

You know, am I going to permit you to marry my daughter?

Or whatever the case may be.

And as far back as Davy Crockett’s writing in 1834, you will find lick log kind of used in this way, as a place where a final decision was going to be made.

You would go and gather there because it was a place that everybody knew, and you knew it because the cattle knew it, and you would follow the cattle.

Yeah, and you’d make the call.

How interesting.

That’s so strange that they would wander out into the pasture somewhere.

When I heard the term lick log, I always kind of thought of like a salt block or salt lick, I think sometimes they call it.

But I didn’t know that they were associated with logs.

It’s strange, though, that they would wander out into a field somewhere to do that.

Well, they don’t wander.

The humans place the log there with the salt on it, and you do that.

It keeps your cattle close, particularly if you’ve got no fence or if you’ve got a giant amount of acres.

But I’m saying it’s so interesting that humans would say, we’re going to meet at the lick log to do this.

Why don’t they meet in the tavern?

Well, that’s what I was trying to kind of say.

It’s a known place.

It’s almost a neutral ground.

It’s a known place because you constantly monitor your cattle so they’re not rustled or they don’t fall into a ravine or the coyotes don’t get them, that sort of thing.

So the lick log isn’t just a passing place.

It’s something you’re very familiar with.

Well, I wonder if it could be the metaphor of all the cattle meeting themselves.

Yeah, that’s true.

It’s like we’re like the cattle.

Yeah, humans is another animal all congregating together.

Yeah, but they would literally meet at the lick log.

They would actually physically be there, and then later it became metaphorical, and now you’re using it as an attorney, and it’s distanced from its roots.

That’s a fantastic story.

Yeah, I’ve only heard that from Texans.

Yeah, it is mostly Texan, as a matter of fact, but like I say, it does go back to Davy Crockett, and you’ll find pockets of it here and there throughout the South.

Well, that is fascinating. I appreciate the information.

Yeah, our pleasure. Thanks for calling, Bill.

Thanks for calling, Bill.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

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