The Bird Hunters
 

Slightly off topic but I hope you’ll indulge me and enjoy the song, The Bird Hunters by Turnpike Troubadours. I heard it for the first time today and believe it very fitting for this group of fine gentlemen. Even the album cover art is beautiful, presumably the underside of an engraved shotgun. Happy New Year!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ZW0pA5COc

Gosh it's nice when art is authentic and you can tell the artist(s) know something about the subject...in this case bird hunting. Thanks, Joe, for bringing this back up to our attention.

I didn’t realize it had been out a while. It’s good to have kids to alert me to “new music” made after 1989. Haha. Happy New Year!

I certainly would flunk any quiz on popular culture! Just thank your kids and act like you knew about everything and are really cool...er...hip...er...awesome...

Thanks again for posting the link.

The entire album can be heard on You Tube. Chilling song. I have left the good life a few times, for short times, and its good to be back. I went two years during Viet Nam and a medium bad marriage for more than two years and never missed a bird season with my own dogs. In 1967, I left on a bus for Fort Bragg on November 1, the week after the PA pheasant opener which is always on a Saturday. I was only 125 miles from home in the fall of 1968, so hunted that year also. My ETS was November 1, 1969, so I got home in time for the whole season. Sam's Army thought they could interrupt my bird hunting, but they miscalculated. My medium bad wife was on my side and I came home to an English Setter pup, Jake, that she picked out and paid for. My Dad has taken over my English Pointer, Ranger, while I was away.

Bill, I can relate to your story. After my tour on the gun line I got an early out upon arrival in Norfolk, Va. our home port. My dad took care of my Brittany while I was overseas and mom and dad picked me up in Norfolk. Dad presented me with a nice Belgium Browning over under which I shot for quite a few years. I didn't miss hunting season that year. It was great to be back and nice to not being the target every other day by North Vietnamese coastal artillery.

Gentlemen,

A very late, but still heartfelt, "thank you" for your service. I'm glad you both made it back to hunt again.

I started working in the mill in 68 and bought my first gun at the local gun store on the square in the center of town, a 20 gauge Savage 311. I built a wood box and padlocked it before I went to Paris Island. I rented an apartment when I got home and could walk out the backdoor and hunt rabbits & pheasants. Two years latter a couple buddies took me grouse hunting.....and I've never been right since!

It is a haunting song and one I can relate to on many levels. I bought my first sxs at 17 with my paper route money. I left for Alaska with the Army at 22, a new 2LT, said goodbye to our German shorthair, also Ranger, who was an old dog at the time, and never saw him again. Now, I’m at home with my beautiful wife and our lovely new baby girl, and an insane 2-year old shorthair. He begins obedience lessons later this week, at my sweet wife’s insistence. My son, like his dad, will be heading to Alaska soon, a new 2LT. Our duck hunt was the last for a while. But I will fly to Alaska to hunt with him before too long. The song reminded me of our quail hunt with my father in October. Three generations. What a privilege. God bless and Happy New Year!