About 25 years ago, I got a call from Neil Selby up in Remington.
“Can you be up here about 5 tomorrow morning? We’ve got geese and lots of them.â€
Neil, a long-time friend, owns Shady Grove Kennels, a hunting preserve. Neil also is a master dog trainer.
“Sure,†I replied. “See you at 5 AM.â€
It happened to be on a Monday in early February and I remembered I had not bought a Duck Stamp, since I had yet to go waterfowl hunting. So, I headed for the Post Office to buy the necessary stamp, but they were closed. It was Martin Luther King’s birthday and the only place to buy a duck stamp was at the Post Office. I had a state hunting license, a turkey license, a deer license, a bear license, an archery license, a National Forest license, a trout stamp, a fishing license, but no duck stamp
Hmmm. Should I risk it?
Since we would be hunting on Neil’s preserve, there was very little chance I would meet up with a Game Warden, and if I did, I would simply explain that I tried, but was unable to buy a duck stamp because it was a federal holiday. That would probably work, so I didn’t think any more about it.
I packed my shotgun and all my gear that evening, and before the crack of dawn, I was headed to Remington, about 45 miles north of Charlottesville.
Neil met me in the parking lot and then introduced me to John, the other hunter.
“This is John, a friend of mine,†Neil said. “John is the Game Warden in Fauquier County.â€
Oh sh…!
I didn’t know what to do or say, but since John didn’t ask for my license right there on the spot, I figured I might still be safe.
So, we went goose hunting and we banged them. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Game Warden of Fauquier County, we each got our limit of 6 birds. After a few hours, we had a pile of geese in the back of Neil’s pickup and that’s when John asked for both Neil’s and my license.
Damn. Busted. I almost made it.
I figured I’d just through myself at the mercy of the court when the judge reads the violation:
“Failure to have a federal duck stamp because Monday fell on Martin Luther King’s Birthday and you didn’t plan ahead!â€
But it turned out that John wasn’t asking for all our licenses, he just needed our hunting license number to give us a permit to transport 18
geese in Neil’s pickup.
The next day I went to the Post Office and bought my duck stamp, even though I wouldn’t go waterfowl hunting again that season.
The Reverend King would have wanted it that way.