NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/760935
82 NEBRASKAland • DECEMBER 2016 E ven when I was a teenager, no longer pining for G.I. Joe and Transformer action figures, Christmas never lost its luster. For my desires then consisted of daybreak mallards, later afternoon bobwhites and evening brunettes. My best friend Rob and I, along with my dad and an assorted pile of other friends, would lug a pile of misshapen and poorly painted decoys into flooded timber adjacent to the Mississippi River outside of Memphis, Tennessee. If we so happened to talk a flock of greenheads below the cypress trees, we had a shot to empty our guns every time. A long walk back up the steep hill among the cypress knees would lead us back to the house for eggs, biscuits and a late-morning nap. I'd switch my waders for brush pants in the afternoon, and meet up with family friend Rick Hearn and his English pointers, Rebel and Sambo, to look for coveys along ditchrows and dikes all across northwestern Shelby County. Nothing was better than watching one of these dogs go on point. We'd bust the covey, kill a couple of birds and look up minutes later to see the dog again on point having found a single. We'd finish the day around sunset, and I'd head to the house and take a shower for the evening festivities. I'm reminded of this every year around this time, especially lately with Nebraska's increasing quail numbers. About a year ago, I started hunting with family friend Brian Sparks in Cass County and his English pointers, walking ditchrows and shelterbelts reminiscent of what I walked during my high school and early college days. With my Browning Light Twelve still across the crook of my arms, I sometimes feel like I'm 17 again. Except that I'm a bit more sore after each walk than I was on those days, and my hunts sometimes get cut off because I have to pick up the kids from school. But everything else is about right – the excitement that happens when a dog goes on point, the sound quail make when they flush and even the smell in the air after a shotgun has been fired. The only major difference is my nightly activities. No more evening excursions for my friends and me. My evening brunettes? That's changed too – for the one that I desired most when I was a teenager has been my wife for nearly 20 years. Neither this time of year, nor that brunette, has ever lost its luster. Jeff Kurrus October 13, 2016 Christmas Vacation