HammerTimeâ  

“Old School”       

       This summer has been a summer of change in my life. Like any summer, business decisions are made and my wife and I set forth the actions to implement our decisions. As the early progress of those decisions start to change our future, I catch my self looking back … rethinking, or reliving, some of the different decisions I’ve made over the years and how they affected my life. Just last week, my wife and I were talking about our hunting service, the changes we have seen and how lucky we are to have met all the people we have. Since Jackie is my third wife, she was not around in 1978 when I opened the first phase of my life as a guide and/or outfitter and she asked about what prompted me to make that first decision about guiding. While I would have thought I had told her the story a hundred times, she acted like it was her first time to hear the details. From that story came another and another and yet another. Getting older does have advantages for sure, but no matter what anyone may or may not believe; “For most of the past 30 duck seasons, I’ve lived a life others only dream about!”         

       When I think about the way we did things then and the way they are done now, it amazes me how simple techniques have changed, but how many of the “Old School” methods still have a place during today’s hunts. You can buy all sorts of gadgets to help move the water, most of which work, but the “Old School” method was to stand by a tree in the flooded timber and kick your old canvas waders in the water. The kicking provided water movement and sound and to this day, I love it when a group of birds turn on a dime, right after you kick the water. What’s even more enjoyable is to see a client’s eyes light up, when it works like it is supposed to … that’s a high you can’t get out of a hand rolled anything!         

       What about those old stories of the sky turning black with ducks, did you ever hear the stories? I’ve not only heard the stories, I’ve lived them and while I have seen it a few times in recent years, it hasn’t happened very often. For that mater, I bet a lot of you can remember the Duck Explosion of the 1990’s. While most folks, who have been in this business as long as I have, won’t think about the 1990’s being considered “Old School”, to some extent it is. The greatest thing I can relate to about the 90’s duck numbers is a recent press release I received from Delta Waterfowl. I don’t know how many of you actually know John Devney, Delta’s Senior Vice President, but I do. Over the years I have known John as not only a close friend, but also as one of the most reserved and conservative people I have ever met. The funny thing about John is; that even though he posses the very traits I just mentioned, he is also a futuristic thinker … and a definite friend to the ducks and the people who hunt, which is exactly why his quote shocked me. Here is the press release I read, see what you think:

Breeding Conditions Look ‘Really, Really Wonderful’

Delta Senior Vice President John Devney surveyed parts of the U.S. and Canadian duck factory recently and found conditions on par with the duck explosion of the late 1990s.

“The good news is we have water in all the right places this year,” he said. “We haven’t had conditions like this since the late 90s. My gut feeling right now is that we’re looking at something really special in the eastern Dakotas this year.”

        After I read that statement and accounted for how conservative John is, I told my wife: “Maybe some of the young hunters are going to get a taste of the “Old school” days.” Which is when she informed me that would be new school, if it were happening in the future. Nevertheless, it brought back those old memories.         

       One of which was my old hunting gear. What about those old camo patterns? Man, oh man, I can remember when all I had to wear was a briar torn canvas hunting coat, with the game pocket in the back of it. The only thing that even resembled camo, was the discoloration from bloodstains and mud that would not come off. Of course I couldn’t wash it, out of fear it would wash off anything that might have help shed the rain. Then, shortly after I had started guiding, two fellows from Memphis fixed me up. Tommy Bronson Sporting Goods, on Union back in those days, but now near Poplar and Highland, fixed me up like a city boy. Mr. Bronson (Tommy) and his son Stewart had been introduced to me by a legend in the Memphis area of sports during those days, Henry Reynolds. Henry was the sport editor for The Memphis Press Scimitar and was one of the first people to put my name in print. Anyway, one day when I drop by Bronson’s Sporting Goods, to change out some Polaroid photos I kept on a corkboard in their store, they showed me a pair of Walls coveralls. Talking about impressing a country boy, you would have thought they had shown me a Rolls Royce. Those coveralls looked so good and felt like they would be a lot warmer than my long johns. And to think, I wouldn’t have to wear my old rabbit hunting coat, or the old Korean, or WWII army surplus stuff … I was going to be in style and uptown. The Bronsons gave me a choice of green or brown and since I spent more time in the woods after the leaves changed, I took the brown pattern. No, it wasn’t as fancy as a lot of the “Coffee Shop Camo” you see around today, but for the “Old School” days, it was the coolest thing on the market. Better yet, the pattern worked and it worked well. Much in the same sense as some of today’s best patterns, that old brown camo blended with anything from an old floating log, to the weeds and brush on the bank of a ditch. I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I was to the Bronsons, much less how many ducks I bagged in those coveralls. In fact, I have a framed copy of one of the first articles Henry Reynolds wrote about me hanging in the lodge. In the main photo, a much … MUCH, younger me is standing by an old-field blind we used and I’m wearing that very set of camo coveralls.         

       When I think about those coveralls and look back at how effective they were, I’ve asked myself hundreds of times over: “Why do hunters need all the flash, when what they are looking for is nothing more than blending with their surroundings and being effective” and no doubt the answer always came up the same. No one sells the old brown pattern anymore, that is until now! Drake Waterfowl has just announced their newest camo pattern and you’ll never believe what they are calling it … Old School Camouflage! Who knows maybe the days of old were so appealing that the ducks are going to have a super year on the nest and give the younger hunters a chance to experience what so many of us only remember and they can even look like they’ve stepped out of an old photo on a lodge wall somewhere and visualize what so many of us refer to as, the … “Old School” … days!         

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