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"Influences" The restaurant we chose didn't have rear end of water buffalo on the menu, but while we were finishing up our meal, a man walks up to our table and proceeded to introduce himself. Not only was he the Chief of Police from one of the municipalities in northeast Arkansas, he had also attended the concert and happened to be O.T. Swindle's grandson. The name, O.T. Swindle, might not mean much to most people reading this manuscript, but it does to me. My dad was the youngest of seven siblings, five of which were male. Being from the south, with a streak of country in their blood, my uncles and my dad were avid hunters. It didn't matter what season was in, they hunted it and hunted their game like their next meal depended on it. Which at some point in their life, it probably did. The knowledge of the outdoors, provided to me by my dad and uncles was overwhelming at times, but they definitely knew their stuff. In fact, I would go so far to say I felt like they knew everything there was to know about the outdoors and the game that lived there … except when it came to duck hunting. That's right, as much as they loved the outdoors, these men spent their youngest years in the Ozarks Foothills and there aren't many ducks in the hills. Still yet, dad and Uncle C.R. had both been bitten by the duck-hunting bug and especially enjoyed the fellowship that went along with the hunt. However, there was one problem. No one in my family could call ducks and being able to call has always been an important part of duck hunting. Since dad and C.R. couldn't blow a call and the shaker call dad hung from his hip boot strap didn't seem to count, they waited for someone to ask them to go along. Getting an invitation wasn't a problem for those two, but add in the extra baggage of an overweight and clumsy kid, invitations weren't as easy to come by. That's when O.T. Swindle came into my life. O.T had a regular crew he hunted with, known to my family as The Vaughn Boys. I never knew why dad and C.R. called them The Vaughn Boys, being they appeared grown to me, but boys or men … these guys knew how to call. I can remember seeing them convince groups of mallards to come through the trees in holes so tight they knocked limbs off on their way to the water. These guys had story after story to tell and they enjoyed sharing them with anyone who would listen. Those were the days, standing by a tree, or on a ditch bank, listening and enjoying life … without having to be quite and still, like on a deer hunt! When dad saw how quickly I fell in love with duck hunting, he decided I needed a call. Coming home from work one afternoon, dad presented me with an Olt call and a 45-RPM record. I listened to that record and practiced and practiced, but could get not my confidence up enough to blow the call in front of anyone. Use it or not … I always had the call with me when I went duck hunting and that's when it happened. It was one of those early morning hunts and we were where the ducks wanted to be. Dad or Uncle C.R. mentioned I had my call with me and with encouragement from O.T. and the guys; I pulled it out and let go with a few notes. They seemed pleasantly surprised and asked me to join in on the next group of birds. Looking back, I have no idea how I sounded, but they convinced me I sounded good enough to call. Standing in the woods that day was a life changing experience for me. Had dad not bought me the call and record and had my uncle, O.T. and The Vaughn Boys not encouraged me to blow my call that day, there's no doubt … my life would have been a lot different. Now, I guess you can understand how excited I was when O.T.'s grandson, the police chief, came up and introduced himself after the concert. No doubt, until he made his introduction, duck hunting was a world away from my mind. Looking back to that time in my life, those early hunting trips formed the basis for how we run our lodge today. Good hunting, good people and great fellowship. But no matter how you slice the pie, it goes back to that one day in the woods with my dad, Uncle C.R., O.T. Swindle and The Vaughn Boys. It's amazing to me how such a simple event, can be traced throughout a person's life and how those early … Influences … changed my future. |
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