It was my father and grandfather that got me started. They'd been big quail hunters and raised dogs all through the 50's and 60's but by the time I got old enough to come along the wild quail had already started to disappear. I cut my teeth on doves and squirrels with Dad, then rabbit hunting with Grandpa and the cousins. My cousin Mark Hoffard was a teacher at my school and took me on my first real rabbit hunt with his pack of beagles.
I was content with all this till I started reading about duck and goose hunting. Dad had always kept a goose pit rented near the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge but by the time I was old enough the price of rental had gotten so high he'd given it up. My best friends father, Kenny Clements, took me under his wing and got me started waterfowling. He had permission on a private little goose paradise the whole time we were in high school and I was always welcome. His son Wade and I also started making our own trips to the various public duck hunting areas around Southern Illinois trying to learn the ropes. We lost the little spot about the time I turned 18 but by then I was hooked and badly.
I met my good friend Dave French our first day of college and we both saw something in one another that neither of us had. A waterfowling partner that was serious about it and willing to work hard to get shooting. We hunted together steady till he moved to Canada in our mid 20's. By that time we were both goose hunting guides and had settled into a passion we knew would last all our lives.
Once Dave left the area and I was out a steady partner, Dad got interested in waterfowling again and we started hunting together. He came to enjoy it more than he had before and it became his passion as well. He and I have been lucky to have a good friend who has a private farm he allows us to gun on whenever we're able.
I've traveled to a lot of places to shoot ducks and geese but those early goose hunts with the Clements family, traveling to central Illinois to gun the opening days there with Dave French, and in later years duck shooting with my father are my fondest memories of all.
DLH
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I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three of four times; lived well and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass. Falstaff - Henry IV
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