It was his twenty third drive from Georgia to Manitoba, interrupted only by two summers in the army. He wondered if this would be his last. He made it in five days, sharing time behind the wheel with his scout Booty Blevins. Both were exhausted when they arrived. Neighbors came over and took charge of the dogs and the stock. Too tired to eat, he and Booty were quickly under blankets and asleep in the shack that served as their home for July and August. Read more
Blog
The Blue Hen ~ Conclusion
One by one the sealed bids were opened by the club’s president and read aloud to the hushed crowd of tuxedoed and gowned revelers. The bids ranged in odd numbers from a low of $30,001 to a high of $50,001, of which there were two. These were, as the two the Curmudgeons had predicted, by Harvey Grant and Fred Lee. Read more
The Blue Hen ~ Part I
Harry Ganes got the bad news from his doctor as a total surprise. What he thought a minor scalp irritation was a melanoma, far advanced, result of too much unprotected sunshine, a common problem for those in his profession, pointing dog field trial trainer-handler. He now knew his days on earth were short, and he set to planning best he could for his wife Mary’s future without him. Read more
Callin’ in Some Chips
Allen Collins called on his cell phone from North Dakota on July 15.
“Mr. Ben, I got a problem.”
Allen had just finished successfully a two-year program at a community college. This summer he would decide whether to go on for a bachelor’s degree or take a job in the quail plantation economy where he had grown up as the son of a plantation manager. He was torn between the two futures, for he had worked beside his father since childhood and loved everything about the quail plantation world, especially the dogs and horses. Read more
On Being a Farm Boy
I would take nothing
For my days as a farm boy
Days waking up
To chores with the cows and sheep
The hay and the pasture
The fences around them Read more
The Prenup
Ben learned from Sam that Buck Branch had left Minnie, his wife of thirty years, for a younger woman, how much younger was a matter of speculation by the curmudgeons as they cast popping bugs for bream on the pond at Mossy Swamp Plantation. It was March 1 and the smell of smoke from controlled burns filled the soft spring air.
“She says she signed an agreement that says she gets nothing before they were married.I told her she should consult you,” Sam said.
At these words, Ben’s temper flared.
“You mean nothing, no alimony or share of marital property?” Ben asked. Read more
An Open Letter to the American Field Publishing Company
Dear American Field management and ownership:
I have been a loyal subscriber and contributor for six decades. I understand and appreciate the economic reasons for your leavIng behind the world of print media. I write to urge you to pursue excellence in the world of internet publishing. I will gladly pay for on-line access to your priceless records of the pointing dog world going back to 1874, and I believe others will also. Please do not let your (and our) heritage slip away. Read more
Preacher
Everyone called him Preacher. That’s all I had ever heard. So I asked Mr. Turley what Preacher’s real name was. “Gene Turner,” Mr. Turley replied. “Hahaha. I’ve got to say, he got it honest. Was the beat’nist thing I ever saw. Faith, that’s what it was. Maybe not in God, but faith none the less.” Read more
How I Came to Write About Bird Dogs
I came by a love of stories, written and oral, by inheritance. My father and his father loved them too, and from an early age turned me to reading stories. They were both fans of O. Henry, Jack London and James Thurber, among others. My father liked particularly light verse, especially that of Ogden Nash, which appeared regularly in The New Yorker Magazine Read more
Joe and Denny and Me — and Lucky
In the summer of 1973, when I was thirty-five and a striving Richmond lawyer, I got an amazing gift from a more striving life insurance salesman hoping for referrals from me, an introduction to his brother, Joe Prince, perhaps Virginia’s most striving grain farmer, and after his crops of wheat, peanuts, soybeans and corn were up, most striving quail hunter. Read more