Now, it was only 2 years between deer hunts and as far as I was concerned, the wait wasn’t worth it, but I’d better get with the program. Because, earlier in the deer season, my 8 year, old son, Brad, had shot and helped his Pap-Paw Buck clean his first deer.
Getting a nice promotion with the large computer company meant that I would have a staff that reported to me. At the insistence of one of my staff, who also happened to be a long time friend, Bob Lindsey, I accepted his invitation to drive out to his ranch that was on I-10, between Columbus and Alleyton, Texas and shoot one of the many bucks that, he said, literally infested the place. He also asked Jim Rodgers to come out and get one too. Jim also worked for me so he and I planned to hunt at Bob’s in the morning then drive south on F.M. Road 102 to Eagle Lake and hunt some ducks on another friend, Sonny Simpson’s, place.
Taking the relatively short drive from our homes, in west Houston, out I-10 to Bob’s ranch, we arrived a good hour before sun up. He had a nice breakfast ready for us and after eating we headed out to our stands, or so I thought. My “stand” was seated on the ground against a post oak tree and I thought, Huh, this is no way to treat your boss! Having borrowed my brother’s M-1 carbine, I just knew that I would get a shot at a buck. Bob had cautioned us, since he didn’t have any doe permits left, please don’t shoot a doe.
Bucks only, so I sat myself down and leaned against my tree eagerly waiting for my buck. A lot of doe, a dozen or more, walked by, some as close as 20 yards, but no bucks.
Because I could sit still no longer, finally, an hour and a half later, I gave up,. Getting up, unloading my carbine, I looked up and there stood, I thought I could reach out and touch him, a spike! I’m sure he was wondering what that funny looking lump of something was beside the tree, but finally, after admiring each other we finally turned and walked off.
No deer this time so Jim and I loaded up and drove down Farm/Market Road 102 towards Eagle Lake. The road ran right by Sonny’s property, so we stopped, opened the gate, drove in, shut the gate and took the long way around so we could check the stock tank for ducks, or the lack thereof. There was a copious amount of ducks on the tank so we got out and slipped on our waders. The waders were needed to retrieve the ducks we hoped we’d shoot.
Walking up behind the tank dam, we crept up, peeped over the edge and saw a lot of ducks, mallards, gadwall and widgeons and I whispered over to Jim, “Pick out the big ones.” We jumped up, the ducks exploded off the water and we let loose, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and the ducks started falling to the water. We counted 4 mallards, 2 gadwall and 1 widgeon, lying still or flopping around. Dispatching the floppers, Jim looked over to me and said, “Boss, I’ll go in and get the ducks, you stay here.” I quickly agreed with him!
Jim collected the first 5 ducks, but the last 2 caused him problems because, walking toward the 2, he was up to the top of his waders. Calling out to Jim I told him I could “chunk” the ducks toward him, but he just walked on out, the water sloshing over the top and down inside. We’d already had two cold fronts so the water was cold, he yelled suddenly when the water hit him, but walked on out, picked up the 2 mallards and walked back, sloshing, up on the bank.
This is one of the times that it really paid off being the “boss”!