Charley Webb outdoors: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
A gaggle of geese
Having been reared by a good Southern momma and daddy, I have in my makeup a certain code of honor and integrity. Of course, telling a little white lie, stretching the truth or snitching an extra cookie out of the jar won’t count on my day of judgment, praise the Lord.
During my teens I took a shine to a certain young lady who was later to become my wife of 34 years as of last Sunday, thank the Lord. Her father, Buck Morris, was quite a character.
In jest, he often attempted to place in question the character of those around him. It’s also part of growing up in the South to take a ribbing and dish it back out to the ribber. In this tale you figure out who was the ribber and who the ribbee.
On a fall afternoon in the 1960s when it was possible to walk across the intersection at Boundary and Ribaut without becoming road kill, a flock of gray fronted geese landed in the intersection. They were exhausted from their Southern migration and figured on spending the night on the blacktop.
Our neighbor, Toomer Aimar, caught one of the geese and knew he couldn’t show up at home with it so he gave it to me. I was into waterfowl identification at the time and gladly accepted the donation.
We named the goose Fred and he hung around the house until one day he laid eggs. Fred’s name was then changed to Fredrica.
Now every goose needs a gander so Toomer’s brother Neil, a.k.a. Neil the Wheel, brought home a Canada goose gander. Now what do gooses and ganders have to do with honor and integrity? Keep reading and you’ll get the relationship.
The gander, as ganders we discovered do, became very protective of Fredrica. His bill had vice grip power, and he began chasing kids, little kids, as they played in the yard.
Unfortunately, it came time for him to make an exit. Nobody wanted to eat goose so we put out the word that Mr. Gander could be adopted by a caring individual who didn’t mind getting chased and chomped on by a love sick goose.
The call came back that a local farmer, Johnny Jones, needed a gander for his flock. I let Johnny know I would deliver the bird on Saturday afternoon.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to take a little drive with my gal, I phoned her house to invite her to accompany me to deliver a gander.
Her father answered and I asked him if it would be all right if she rode out to Johnny Jones farm with me to deliver a full grown gander . There was a choke, a cough , and a wheeze on the other end of the line.
“Son, I’ve heard and given many excuses in my life for picking up a girl to go courting but this one takes the cake. Couldn’t you make up something better than that?”
He granted the permission but with some reservations. The whole episode got me to thinking. I’d show him I could be trusted.
I knew from previous visits to their house that he and his wife turned in early. I planned my delivery to Johnny Jones after dark. My arrival to my sweetheart’s house found her father and mother sleeping soundly. Actually he was snoring like a McCulloch Mini Mac chain saw.
I slipped into their room under the cover of darkness and set the ol’ love sick, vice grip chomping gander right in between Mr. and Mrs. Morris and made it back to the kitchen to await the results.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Gander was ready to take flight. With flapping, honking, hissing and chomping he interrupted the dreams of my future, untrusting father in law.
He didn’t load the 12 gauge to hunt me or the goose as I expected, but from that moment on he knew I was a man of my word.
Well, it was all worth the time and effort for a night out courting .
Charley Webb is a Beaufort native who writes an occasional column for The Beaufort Tribune when he is not otherwise busy in the great out of doors or operating Kinghorn Insurance of Beaufort.
Photo: Wikipedia.
Related posts:
- Charley Webb outdoors: Good times on Goat Island
- Charley Webb outdoors: Good times on Goat Island
- Charley Webb outdoors, by his son, Milledge: Fathers and fishes
- Charley Webb outdoors: Frog gigging
- Charley Webb outdoors: Regattas in Beaufort
