My favorite Marshall Loftin story was told to me by Marshall while we were riding the soon to be grounds at Sandy Hollow, Wilmer, Louisiana. Marshall said one December a judge from Baton Rouge called him to see about buying a squirrel dog. It seemed that the judge wanted to take his grandson squirrel hunting during the Christmas break.
“Yes sir, I’ve got a nice one,” Marshall told the judge over the phone. “But he ain’t cheap,” Marshall continued. “I’ll have to get $2500 for him”. As we road along (it was Sixty Rayburn, myself, Lee Willie, and Gerald Roberts.) We were all giving Marshall our complete attention as it was every time Marshall started a story.
“No Marshall, that’s way too high”, the judge replied. “I’ll just have to do something else.”
Marshall told us, “I could tell he was serious and $2500 would make a mighty good Christmas. So I told him, “Look, why don’t you come get the dog and use him a few days with your grandson and then if you don’t want him bring him back?” They agreed.
Well, Christmas passed, and New Years passed, then about the end of the first week in January the judge showed up at Marshal’s House.
“Hello Marshall, that dog is sure doing fine. My grandson is off for another week or so and we’re going to do some more squirrel hunting. Boy that little dog sure is a fine one!”
“How much longer are you going to keep him?” Marshall asked.
“Oh, that’s why I’m here. We want to buy him.” The judge answered. He then proceeded to shell out 25 hundred dollar bills.
“It didn’t make it there for Christmas,” Marshall told us, “but it did make it. I knew it would.”
We continued to ride along. Marshall was showing us how to lay out the courses at Sandy Hollow. After a while I said, Mr. Marshall, “You must really know squirrel dogs.”
Haha he laughed, “I know grandpas! That dog was sold when he picked it up. Grandpas are the easiest sells in the business.”
©2020, Danny Bardwell