pc: Dave Grossman

Greetings and Merry Christmas from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

I was up north recently and the temps at first light were -9 below zero! I have not experienced that in a while… But northern weather is drier than life by the sea. A wicked wind and 20 degrees on the bay feels much colder than -9 below zero up north. That always amazes me.

How is your Christmas going? If you are like me, you have something in mind that you secretly hope to find under the tree on Christmas morning with your name on it! A charter with Capt. Dave perhaps? Or maybe a new set of car keys (!) I always check the driveway first when I get up. No luck yet, but hey – it’s nice to dream…

When I was a young boy, I remember asking for three LL Bean Cork Black Duck Decoys for Christmas! I had received two plastic mallards a few years earlier and they were wonderful toys and learning tools for an aspiring ten year old duck hunter. I even got my first goose over them with my Dad on the Back River! But on this particular Christmas, I really hoped for my first set of cork decoys, the true mark of a serious duck hunter, carved in George Soul’s decoy shop up in Maine.

On Christmas morning, I came down stairs and I could literally smell the glorious scent of burnt cork coming from a big box wrapped up under the tree! Wow… I knew exactly what it was and I could barely contain myself. I carefully tore away the wrapping paper, with both my parents watching, and ever so delicately opened the box. The scent of cork was overwhelming! I took each magnum cork black duck out one by one, and held it in my hands. I was stunned at the amazing, lifelike detail and perfection of the painted pinewood heads. I ran my hands over the cork bodies of each decoy and turned them over to admire the flat bottoms with a wisp of a keel. I set them on the floor in front of me and could not stop looking at them. I kept picking them up again and turning them over and over in my hands, my nostrils filled with that glorious cork smell.

Well, I have collected a lot of decoys since that day. Many of them cork, some of them fine wood carved, and they are all beautiful to look at and to hold. But nothing will ever compare to a young boy coming down the stairs on Christmas morning, fifty years ago, to a box smelling of cork, that held the keys to a lifelong joy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 33 Years Guiding The Bay. Still In Love.

Soli Deo Gloria!