Ocean County Decoy and Gunning Show in Tuckerton 2014

On September 27th I attended the 32nd Annual Decoy & Gunning show.  It took place at the Tuckerton Seaport and Stanley H. ‘Tip’ Seaman County Park.   

This is a monument is found on route 9 near the entrance to the park. It was moved from Camden, NJ. to its present location.  There is a native American statue on the top. It was placed by a National organization called the Redmen. Even though I read online about this particular statue it is still hard to figure out the connection between the Native American tribes and this patriotic group of mostly white men. 

It was a very nostalgic experience for me since I had been to the event several years ago with my husband before it grew into this huge event. The whole affair brought memories flooding back of my husband's life as a hunter------it was not just a hobby for him.  Except for the summers when he would go fishing, he was always hunting or preparing to hunt. With his English Setter he would set off for rural areas along the railroad tracks trying to flare up some quail, woodcock or pheasants.  Back then he had a collection of duck calls for hunting geese and ducks on the marshes near Atlantic City.  So many Saturday mornings he was up before dawn dressing warmly in his camouflaged hunting clothes.  Thanksgiving was a day of rabbit hunting with the beagles and the men in the family.  Then it was deer season locally with all the different variations:  shot gun season, muzzle-loading gun season and also bow season.  He hunted alone and with a club.  He would go off on extended trips to exclusive hunting lodges where the wealthy would seek out his advice. He made friends with expert hunting guides and authors of hunting magazines.   They all had the common denominator:  their love of hunting.  There was not a week that would go by when we did not eat some sort of game or fish that was caught.  Hunting was his life although his life is very different now as he has early onset Alzheimer's disease.  I am left with little to do except to somehow pay tribute to him.  While there are those who do not approve of that type of life-style that involves hunting, I am happy to know that he did what he loved and I miss him even though he is very much alive. 

Freckles our English Setter, seems to be focusing on a cat or a squirrel.  When he was out in the field with my husband, Freckles had good form with his tail extended straight out.  He came from a championship line of hunting dogs. 

This plaque is from one of his mounted bucks. He got this buck at Burnt Pine Plantation in Marietta,  Al Holmes from Alabama did the expert taxidermy and he since passed away :

This show at Tuckerton was a free event featuring demonstrations, contests, seminars, a decoy auction, crafters, duck and bird carvers, food vendors, refreshments, music, education, and entertainment. It was hosted by the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders and Department of Parks & Recreation.

Here is my friend Steven. He drove us to the event and was lively company for his mom and I.   His family goes way back in Jersey history. I called him the "old salt"  He definitely can tell tales in a skillful and amusing way:

I got some good photos from the widow's walk on the top of the maritime museum.  I had to argue with the keeper of the museum but I prevailed.  I had seen people on the roof enjoying the view so I wanted to do the same.  I was grateful that the museum was free and open to the public on the day of the festival but when I got to the stairway to the walk I was blocked from going up. The caretaker said that no one was allowed up there because of wasps. I told the lady that as we speak there are people up there enjoying the view.  She said it was because they would not come down and that they went up before they discovered the wasps. I said  that wasps don't scare me and that paled in contrast to my fear of heights. She saw that I was not going to give up and she relented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow%27s_walk

I bought a duck call, an unfinished duck head walking stick, and a unfinished duck blank.   Below my work in progress and my walking stick that I wood burned and painted: