Day 43 of 365, 2004 DERBY CHAMPION

Day 43 of 365, I went to Mom and Dad's house. I had wanted to go to St. Francisville today because there was an event going on that I was interested in. Terry told me we could go. First, he wanted to watch something on tv. Well, by 4 or 5 pm, we still had not left the house. I picked up my keys and phone and told him I was going to find something to take a picture of. I need a blog post for goodness sakes!

Here I go, driving my car. No direction. No idea where to go. I really wished that Terry was with me. So, I was driving along. hohum....dumdedummmm...I didn't want to go far from home. I ended up turning down my parent's street and went to visit with them for a bit. It was getting late so I asked Mama if she had any ideas for my blog. We thought a few seconds. I noticed some cool figurines. I had seen them a million times before, but I thought..hey, photograph her collection! yes! I was onto something. The only problem I had was lack of lighting. I went ahead and put my camera on the tripod and we lined up her Musical Melodies collection that she has had for about 6 years. While we were working with that, daddy came along said, "You can take a picture of my award!" He was holding his trophy belt buckle so proudly. I told him that I would like to take a picture of it when we were finished. After we put away the Musical Melodies, I asked Dad to hold the buckle so that I could take a picture. I am so glad that I did get this picture. It means alot to him, therefore, it means alot to me too. When I got home, I realized just as I suspected, I needed more light on the figurines. I talked to Mom and we are going to work on getting some really sharp pictures at a later date. So, that will be a blog post to come... As for this post, I have a subject....My Daddy's Derby Champion Buckle!

Daddy is a hunter from way back. All my life, I have heard this phrase, "I am headed to the woods." Then, we see a rolling plume of dust behind his truck tires after he throws it in drive and punches the gas. Off he goes! At one time, he was owner of a 500 acre hunting camp. He always referred to the camp as 'The Fox Pen'. This is where men would bring their Fox Hounds and turn them loose at night to run the fox. Those hunters love to listen to the dogs barking and bawling as they follow the scent of the fox. Hunters can identify their dogs by the sound of their bark. It is pretty amazing. I remember one bumper sticker that said, "When the tailgate drops, the BS stops." That is funny huh? But, that just about sums it up. Those guys get together and yack it up about how their dog is the greatest of all time. But, when they drop their truck tailgates, the dogs are off and running and the best dog wins the race!

My dad entered his Walker Fox Hound dog named Cricket in a Fox Hunt Field Trial in Enon, LA. A field trial is a judged event by standers (men keeping score) on the trails. They score the dogs by watching where the fox crosses and whichever dog is leading on the fox trail, gets high score. The numerous scorekeepers come together when the field trial fox hunt is considered over so they can tally their high scores. On this particular hunt, Daddy's Cricket took 1st place and became the 2004 DERBY CHAMPION of the Southeastern Louisiana Hunter's Association. They presented him with a very valuable silver trophy belt buckle as 1st place award to the champion.