In case anybody's interested, I came across this yesterday evening while doing a little light reading just before we departed "deer camp'.
I didn't actively search for this but sort of stumbled onto it in the same book where Dave read the "Last Day" by H. P. Sheldon of his son's last day bird hunting with his dad just before WW II broke out.
This is taken from a story by Nash Buckingham called Red Letter Days With Quail written by request of Noel Sheldon, H. P.'s son and was included in the 1947 book Great Hunting and Fishing Stories.
He begins -
Dear Noelly:*
My red-letter day on quail? The one incident high-lighting more than fifty years staring down shotgun ribs at exploding bevies? The one such day I'd prefer re-living? Lad, you almost sent me scurrying to Kodak-books and diaries out-dating the turn of the century. . .
*Noel Sheldon is Hal (Col. H. P.) Sheldon's son. In Nash Buckingham's Derrydale book "Ole Miss", a collection of unpublished stories, is one titled "Surrender to Youth". The Christmas before Mr. Buckingham had given young Noel his old ruck sack, skinning knife and several other "possibles" including a mess kit that had gone through two hot corners in WW I. "Surrender to Youth" tells the story of the ruck sack and Mr Buckingham's reasons for giving it to young Noel Sheldon.
"Noelly" is now full-grown, six feet two, 195 pounds and served in the Army Air Corps.-ed
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