Twenty years ago, I lived in Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK when I was in the Air Force. My wife and I were newly married, and lived in a town house off base. Our neighbors were a couple from Australia, and the husband, Herb, was there studying for his career in Mental Health. Herbie and I became fast friends, and although we had not seen each other in 18 years, we both looked forward to his visit to Texas Dec. 30th through Jan. 6.

Before Herbie arrived in the U.S. we e-mailed back and forth, and Herbie indicated to me that he wanted to go "shooting", which was his word for hunting. Herbie had never hunted in his life, and due to the strict gun laws in Australia, had not handled or fired a weapon since his days in the Army back in the 70's.

I took Herbie hunting. We got him outfitted with a license, and decided we would hunt for ducks and wild hogs. Our hog hunting did not work out well, and wouldn't you know it, we saw lots of nice bucks when hunting for hogs! At least he got to see some nice shooter bucks! We did get in some good duck hunting, and Herbie had a ball shooting some target practice, and 4 wheeling all over the ranch (the heavy rains turned it into a mud pit).

I will tell one funny story on Herbie. While we were hunting ducks, a cripple went down on the opposite bank, and I took the dog over to retrieve the duck, believing the duck would have expired in the time I waited. When we got over to the opposite bank, Lavern (my dog) flushed the cripple and it made it back into the water. Laverne went right after the cripple, but it continued to dive under and would pop up several yards away from Laverne. I watched Laverned try to get this duck several times, and I finally realized that Laverne would not be able to retreive the downed duck. I called over to Herbie to shoot the duck. Herbie did not move. Laverne continued to chase the duck. I told Herbie to shoot the duck again, and again Herbie did not move. Finally, after watching Laverne lose the duck one more time, I yelled over to Herbie very slowly and succinctly, HERBIE, GO OVER THERE AND SHOOT THAT G**DAMNED DUCK! Herbie popped up like a rocket and said; "righty-o Mate!", and went over and shot the duck. I almost fell down laughing. Herbie is one of those guys that is funny without really trying to be funny.

Herbie shot well when we duck hunted, and as I told him, he would be a pretty good wing shot if he got more opportunties. Herbie loved being out at the ranch, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the different types of wildlife and plant life we have here in Texas. He especially love the prickly pear cactus (because of Cowboy movies), and shooting my "six shooter" .357 magnum was a special treat for him. I really believe I showed Herbie the time of his life, and we added lots of new memories to our twenty year friendship.

I will miss Herbie, and look forward to visiting him in Australia.

Good on ya, mate! 

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