I long for the days
When quail abounded
Wild and ubiquitous
On much of the Nation
When tracts with edges
And corners and fence rows
Gave food and cover
To hide, nest and hatch on
When great endurance stakes like
The National,
Free-For-All and
Invitational
Ran on wild birds
And there were plenty
When handler and scout
Were a permanent partnership
When electricity
Played no part in dog training
Or finding a dog
Lost on point or run off
When we all longed
For Labor Day
To signal the start
Of the field trial season on the prairies
On the Canadian prairies
Followed by North and South Dakota
Ohio and pheasant trials
Then at Thanksgiving the Invitational
After Christmas
The great spring season stakes
The Florida at Chinquapin
Continentals at Dixie
Free-For-All at Sedgefields (West)
Then in February
The National at the Ames Plantation
March the Masters and Southeastern
In South Georgia
Now the Florida and Free-for-All
As a three-hour stake are gone forever
As are the great Canadian
and North and South Dakota all-age trials
All-Age trials that somehow survived
The Great Depression
World War Two and the
Great Recession
But now gone…