Remembrances

Understanding Death

January 25, 2025 | Remembrances | Comments

Death is always but a moment away. My father died of injuries from a car crash when I was fifteen. I had known his death was coming soon since age twelve. How had I known? Because of a freak storm you can learn all about on Wikipedia, the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, our family woke to radio warnings of a fast-moving nontropical cyclone with devastating force. Deep drifting snow and sub-zero temperatures were forecast to arrive in the afternoon. Thanksgiving day had been mild and pleasant. I had turned twelve on June 29. Read more

Memories of the Free-For-All

January 17, 2025 | National Free-For-All Championship, Remembrances | Comments

It was my privilege to report the National Free-For-All Championship at Sedgefields, Safford, Alabama a few years just before its discontinuance as a three-hour stake. It was unique, and its loss was a blow to the sport. First run in 1916 by the National Field Trial Club, it was first won by John Proctor (HOF 1954), which had won the National Championship the week before after a two-hour second series. Read more

Parke C. Brinkley and Virginia Field Trials

December 31, 2024 | Parke C. Brinkley, Virginia Field Trials | Comments

I also want to congratulate the Association of Virginia Field Trial Clubs for the contribution that it has made to bird dogs and field trials in Virginia since its organization in 1958. It has never been stronger nor has it had more influence than it has today under the leadership of Gene Hogg and Rogers Huff. Read more

Spring Shuffle Delayed

July 29, 2024 | Ben Reach, Short Stories, Ted Baker | Comments

Oliver Bain sold his AI (artificial intelligence) Unicorn (billion-dollar start-up) to Microsoft instead of taking it public. He was 58, and unknown to any around him, had a secret ambition he would now satisfy. As a boy growing up on a farm in Virginia, he had walked with his father, a dirt farmer, behind home grown pointers and setters after quail. Read more

My Favorite Spot on Dixie

June 12, 2024 | Remembrances | Comments

Many of us have a favorite spot on Dixie, now Livingston Place. Mine is just east of the George Evans house. On it surrounded by a low white picket fence rest the gravestones of great Dixie bird dogs and retrievers, field trial and hunting, for Mr. Gerald, Mrs. Eleanor and Miss Geraldine. Read more

Leonard

June 7, 2024 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Remembrances | Comments

I reported my first field trial in January 1995 and my last in January 2022, both at Chinquapin Farm, both the Florida Open All-Age Championship. Many in between all over the continent and every year the Florida. All but a few on borrowed horses. Read more

My Love Affair With Chinquapin

January 10, 2024 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Remembrances, Ted Baker | Comments

My long life (85 years) has been marked by good luck. None so great as meeting Ted Baker and gaining his invitation to report the Florida Open All-Age Championship which I did from 1995 through 2022. As a result, I watched the continent’s best all-age dogs in competition head to head annually over twenty-seven consecutive years on wild quail. Just think of it. Read more

Joe

November 15, 2023 | Poetry, Remembrances | Comments

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

When January Comes

October 17, 2023 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry, Remembrances, Ted Baker | Comments

When January comes I will be here at home First time since 1994 Won’t be at Chinquapin The second week Of that cold month at home I spent in North Florida From 1995 through 2022 Read more

No Regrets

August 4, 2023 | Remembrances | Comments

My life grows short I somehow know But I dread not death Or where I’ll go Read more