Traditions

[Kevin McCormack]

Rousted myself about 2 hours before dawn this morning to make my annual Thanksgiving Day hunt. Today it was to the local duck roost, hard by the hedgerows against the flooded timber for some pass shooting along the Potomac River, brought to near flood stage by the recent heavy rains here in MD. After 46 years in the field, all the motions fell into place: check gun, calls, proper nontox shot, license and stamps, etc.

With the river in flood stage, not much shooting from the mainstem of the Potomac, but by a half hour after legal time, big flocks began moving from the timber roosts out into the sloughs beside the river. Managed an impossibly high pass shot on a lone mallard drake streaking over the treetops into the flooded timber. Satisfied with a single bird in the bag against a spectacular sunrise of a bluebird day, and with nothing else flying, I called it a morning.

When I reached the truck on the way out of the timber, I lit a fine imported cigar and began the drive home on the long, straight road to civilization. About a third of the way there, I came upon a lovely young woman dressed in English riding togs, standing in the middle of the road waving her arms over her head. I stopped my truck and was about to ask her what was up, when I saw a double line of mounted riders, some of whom were replete with bright scarlet waistcoats and tunics, leading smaller groups of horses and ponies across the road.

Bolting out between and among them was a pack of English foxhounds, skittering along with their peculiar lope, charging the horses and coursing forward along the route. It turned out to be the hounds and riders of the Potomac Hunt, out for their traditional Thanksgiving Day fox hunt. In the brilliant November morning sunshine, it looked like a Currier and Ives print from 200 years ago. After they had safely crossed the road, there was a line of about 20 cars on either side of them, many of whose drivers jumped out of their cars with cameras to take pictures of the pageant.

When the whipper-in gave the stopped cars the signal to pass, we drifted by them single file. The clothes, trappings and mounts might as well have been from the 1700's, since this area was one of the ancestral grounds of George Washington's hunting buddy, Daniel Bowley, who owned thousands of acres in and around the area in colonial times. If I hadn't already lit a fine cigar, I would have done so at the mere sight of them!

On the rest of the drive home, I reflected on how embracing the traditions of the sporting life has enabled us to appreciate what we experience in this country of ours today; the freedom to pursue our outdoor lives with dogs, guns, horses, whatever. We are indeed blessed and have so much to be thankful for on this, our American Thanksgiving Day. My very best to you and yours, whose ancestors helped to "carve from the wilderness" this great land of ours!

[Dean Romig]

You paint quite a nice picture Kevin. Thank you.

[ch]

Yes indeed. A nice shot, bird in bag a wonderful hunt.

[Double Lab]

You have a wonderful command of the English language. Thanks for painting that literary picture for us. Wish I were there.
Daryl

[C.O.B.]

For a second there I was wondering what you put in your morning coffee.
I guarded a small section of the planet against the invasive intrusion of the White Tailed Deer. The morning was dark and overcast with a hint of rain. It was a balmy 42 degrees at 6am. I had the 257AI with me but it didn't get put into service. I have a rather large pothole about 100 yards in front of me and the Mallards and Woodies supplied the morning entertainment which was worth the trip by itself.

[charlie cleveland]

thanks for the hunt and the duck...but the fox hunters was the best i would have smoked a fine cigar with you too if id a been there even tho its been a few years since ive had a good cigar..i feel as though i was there... thanks charlie

[Bill Murphy]

Hopefully, Kevin will continue his "traditional" Thanksgiving weekend with a friendly box bird shoot with a few like minded traditionalists.

[Autumn Daze]

Kevin, That was wonderful....Thank You!

[King Brown]

We are generally the "one per cent" of comfort if not portfolio. Time, place, birth and circumstance---most beyond our control---have given us much to be grateful. Life, as we say, is good. We fail to live to a high standard of human values, however, without empathy concerning the millions currently losing their homes, jobs, educations and futures, where entry-level UAW workers now are paid $14 hourly, qualify for food stamps, unable to buy products they make. Just a thought, a "quick reply."

[Dollar Grade]

What a wonderful scene you have described Kevin. My eyes are glassy and my heart is racing thinking of chasing the hounds on horseback in full pageantry. What a sight it must have been. In my part of the country they chase the dogs with pick-up trucks on the grid layed out by the surveyors in the 1830's. Not nearly as festive and steeped with tradition. May the horses and hounds run for another 200 years !!

I also spent the morning duck hunting a little swamp near home. I took a cousin that had never duck hunted before. He was able to knock down his first drake mallard and a nice Canada Honker. Not a lot of birds flying but it was a very pleasant morning with lots of great stories told. He served in the Marine Corps and did two tours in Iraq. His second tour as a Marine Sniper. He is a also a Purple Heart recipient. He is going to WMU for one of the many medical degrees available these days.

Even though he is shooting a mossberg I am thinking I planted the bug for a Parker in his future.

Sorry Kevin I hope I didn't hijack your wonderful thread.