Grover's Mid-Life Crisis AVERTED!!

For those of you who knew that my calls (AND lifetime accumulation of bands) were missing, here is an update...

While mentally probing the dark recesses and cobwebbed corners of of my mind agonizing over where they might be...I took a trip down memory lane thinking about the different bands and the memories they represented. First I mentally retraced my steps to the last time I remembered having them. Friday December 12th had been my last hunt to have the calls. I had been hunting with Lee Adams, Mark Warburton, Kevin Hutchison, & Ford Thompson at Duck Swamp. The hunting was slow and we ended up stopping several places after leaving. The fact that the calls could have been left any number of places (boat docks, levees, etc.) and it had been over two weeks ago before I noticed them missing.....I was beginning to give up hope after not finding them in the obvious places.

I know it sounds silly, but I have literally lost sleep over it the last several days. As the feeling of loss was sinking in this weekend I remembered individual hunts involving those bands....

There was my first band from many years ago... collected on the last day of the last hour of the last MINUTE of legal shooting time at Tunica, Mississippi. I was hunting with Pop at a place we called "The Airstrip" when a drake mallard fell to my Miroku made Charles Daly O/U. It was a cold and icy day, and the retrieve took awhile because of the ice. By the time I retrieved the duck and returned to where Dad was, it was dusk and I hadn't noticed the band. I was about 15 or 16 on this hunt, and I hadn't learned to start looking for that yet. Pop noticed it for me....boy what a feeling that first band was! For something that is man-made, they sure do look like they belong on that foot when you first see them!

Then there was my next band on another hunt with Pop, this time it was a banded hen Woodie taken on a hunt while wading a swamp near Beaulah, Mississippi. Again it was the last hour of the last day of the season, and VERY close to the last legal shooting minute! Pop used to rib me good for shooting hens, but this time I got to rib back a little.

Another memory for me was my first double-banded duck. I was hunting with Dr Charles Mason, a close friend and hunting buddy of my Dad's. I grew up hunting with Dr Mason and my Dad...those memories are special. Anyway, it was another icy cold day this time on Bayou DeView near Hunter, Arkansas. It was the day before the last day of the season on a morning hunt, but yep there was another hen involved. This time a hen mallard, and I still remember being in the boat and turning that duck over to see not one, but two legs with bands on them! Boy did those silver and green colored bands look pretty in the sun! It was after this hunt on the drive back to Memphis that Dr Mason, a very fine duck caller, taught me how to take my calling a step further. I'll never forget his gentle encouragement and instruction on how to let that high-ball sing and how to use my diaphragm to blow.

There are many more memories associated with the bands on my duck call lanyard, but you get the point. The crisis is over and the bands and calls were found this morning right before going to work. I had an epiphany on where to look, and when I found the bag I was looking for,,,, dug around inside and.....WOW!....there they were. Hearing the jingle and seeing the bands,,,,it was almost as good as getting the first one ALL OVER AGAIN! What a relief!

Hunt hard and shoot 'em in the lips. If you're stuck at the office off the marsh, feel free to tell us your band story. I promise it will get you back in the hunting spirit while away from Poinsett County. It'll also get you in the mood to hurry back and work on gettin' that next one! It did for me.

Grover