Texas State Coon Hunters Association
1/16/2006 12:54:05 PM
"They even play a little football down there."
By Steve Fielder
Madisonville, TX - There’s an awful lot this writer likes about Texas. I like western swing music, the kind you would expect from Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, Asleep At The Wheel or my favorite all time artist, Texas legend George Strait. I like Texas barbecue (there’s a place on I-45 between Dallas and Houston called “Bubba’s Serious Barbecue” and they mean it). You haven’t lived if you haven’t tried beef brisket done Texas-style. I love the way Texans have a world of their own out there. They say y’all and they wear Wranglers, Ropers, and Resistols instead of Dockers, Polo, and Calvin Klein. They play dominoes and their own brand of poker, Texas Hold’em. The hunts out there have “cast carriers” instead of guides, and they even play a little football, ala the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorns.
I’ve always enjoyed going to Texas and when Texas State Coonhunter’s Association president Jerry West invited me out to the board meeting last weekend, I said, “Yes sir!” Caroline quickly made reservations and I was on a plane headed for deep east Texas via Charlotte and Houston George Bush airport where the Avis folks loaned me a car for the 90-mile drive to Madisonville. I arrived around noon Saturday, checked into the local Best Western and quickly changed for the one o’clock meeting.
It was a family reunion for me as I saw old friends Jim and Bonnie Foshee, Bud and Janice Dromgoole, Dallas and Lee Sanders, Walter and Cathy Stephens, Bill and Roxanne Taylor, Earl Maxfield, Melvin Johns, and J.E. Wilkins and his new bride Lenora. And I was pleased to meet Jerry and Mary West for the first time personally, as well as to put faces on the many phone calls over the past year with Charles and Betty Matthews (I’ve worked a lot with Betty and the youth hunts at New Waverly in the past year). I also met Larry and Marsha Cloudy, Curtis McDaniel, and Ray Stanley and his wife whose name has escaped me. I’m sure I’ve missed some other names and faces and I apologize but it was great to see this enthusiastic group again after a seven-year absence.
We discussed a AKC Texas Kick-off event to be held in the Spring of 2006 and the Texas State Coonhunter’s Reunion event that has been a passion of mine ever sincemy first Texas State Hunt in Fairfield in September of 1983. We’ll be working with the Texas Board of Directors to see that these are quality events that all coon hunters and their families will enjoy. Should you want more information about the Texas State Coonhunter’s Association, try their website at:
www.tscha.org
The following photos tell the story of what was truly a grand Texas State reunion for me last weekend. The only problem was that the time spent, including the opportunity to have dinner with the Wests, Taylors, Wilkins, Stanleys, and Dromgooles went entirely too fast. CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
Photo 1: The Texas State Coonhunter’s Association Board at the meeting on January 14th in Madisonville.
Photo 2: With a “Texas-Big” American flag in the background, the Texas board conducts the business of one of the nation’s oldest and best coon hunting organizations.
Photo 3: I took plenty of AKC materials to the meeting in order to explain the wide assortment of programs available to coon hunters through AKC this year.
It was great to see longtime friends like Bud and Janice Dromgoole of Crosby, TX at the board meeting. …...
And, Dallas and Lee Sanders of Lufkin, TX...
As well as Jim and Bonnie Foshee of Canton, TX…
And Walter and Cathy Stephens who hail from Hearne, TX.
Thanks folks for a wonderful time. I’m looking forward to being back in Texas very soon.
Hook’em Horns!
(Sorry about that, all you Aggie fans down there but you’ve got to give the National Champions a little respect!)
|