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Joe

He was the best I ever owned But in truth he owned me A setter pup from Flash and Pat From their first litter of a dozen more  Joe Prince gave me Joe A weanling gift for Christmas I’d got Flash for him from Bill Anderson And Pat for him from Arthur Bean She a daughter of Alamance Pride Runner-Up to Hilmar for Arthur in the Eastern Open ‘76 Flash Read more

The Hole

Bud Cole and Andy Grimes were rivals, to put it mildly. Each was a pointing dog trainer-handler for the public in the shooting dog category. They were based in Southside Virginia, a land where tobacco and pine trees for pulpwood and saw timber dominated the rural landscape. The year was 1963. Read more

What if?

What if there were no more field trials?  Soon there would be only ankle warmers For only competition’s testing leads to better breeding It’s not a way-out theory  It’s the truth Read more

Days Remembered

I was twenty three to thirty  Care worn and sometimes depressed  But grouse season opened So I put my setter in the plywood box I’d built  Read more

Mountain Roads

I love to drive the byways Of the counties of my youth Where the Blue Ridge rises steeply And the hollers hold streams roiling in the spring  Where white pines blend with rhododendrons And hickories caress poplars and ginseng grows below Where stone bridges span the bottoms and high vistas wait at tops Where Forty Fords hauled moonshine and peach brandy to West Virginia miners in my youth Yes I Read more