Old Duck Hunter reflects
"I always had black Labradors, except for one young yellow Labrador that, oddly, lost an eye about the same time Kirby Puckett had trouble with his eyes," Joel said. "So I gave him away as a pet to a neighbor a few blocks away. But that dog always kept coming back, and the new owner was continually at our house, picking him up."
Born in Missouri, Joel was educated at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, graduating smart enough to move with his wife, Connie, to St. Paul in 1961. He managed the stockyards in South St. Paul for many years at a time when cattle, hogs and sheep were trucked to the Twin Cities from as far away as Montana. Ducks were plentiful then, too, and soon Joel was hanging out with brothers Boots and Tony Roszak of South St. Paul, also Dave Grannis and Butch Rifkin.
Each, like Joel, and like Bud and Harvey and Dave, was a duck hunter, and therefore needed to lead a duck hunter’s life.
I first met Joel 20 year ago. A candid guy, he outright told me he had recently suffered a spell of depression, an affliction that had cost him too many October mornings in a duck blind, a depressing thought in itself. "But I’m OK now," he said.
Thus began a friendship that over time saw us toting shotguns and decoys and dirty Labradors to marshes near and far. Cool to hunt with, and adventuresome, Joel found as much pleasure in his hunting mates as in the birds he sought.
"The number of ducks I might shoot in a given day was never that big a deal to me," Joel said Thursday. "I always said you should only be allowed to kill as many ducks as you’re willing to clean yourself. That would take care of the guys who want to shoot them all."
Over the years, Joel has been famous for buying shotguns he didn’t need. One summer, at Game Fair, he slipped away from Connie long enough to throw down money on a new Benelli, an acquisition he intended not to broadcast widely. Or, really, at all.
But his cover was blown when over the fair’s many loudspeakers the public address announcer said, "Joel Bennett, you can pick up your new shotgun at Will Call on your way home."
Writ large in wild country, Gordon MacQuarrie’s "Old Duck Hunter" stories lay bare people’s passions and no less their idiosyncrasies, particularly when read with the sense of wonder and humor that inspired their author.
No tags for this post.
Related posts
