Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/652998
Lloyd Newberry C r a f t s m a n H unting was a very normal activity for young adolescents where I grew up in rural middle Georgia. We started with rabbits and squirrels and progressed rapidly to white-tailed deer, quail, and ducks. When I completed my doctorate and moved to the coast of Georgia, waterfowl hunting became my passion. I chased ducks from Maine to Florida. I was also "born to collect." By age 10 my collecting gene had crawled out from under its chromosome and was exerting influence on my daily life. Arrowheads, bird feathers, snake skins, and the like crowded my shelves. At age 25 I was heavy into hunting books and related trappings of the sport. Then one day, while being a considerate husband, I followed my wife, Martha, into an antique shop. Here I made a discovery that would forever change my life. Sitting in the corner on a nail keg was an old hand- carved pintail duck decoy. For $10 it was mine, and as they say, "the rest is history." For me, decoy collecting is a natural outgrowth of the sport of duck hunting combined with the collecting mentality. That's probably true for 90 percent of the first generation of decoy enthusiasts. Included, and often one and the same with this group, are those who are interested in the Golden Perhaps the only art form to originate in America, the decoy is, in essence, a historical document of our golden age of waterfowling. S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 8 7 till in original paint, this canvasback pair was carved by Billy "Snakes" Heverin of Chestertown, Maryland. The pair is valued at $2,500. Heverin used the birds to hunt waterfowl on the Susquehanna River. S