Monday, August 17, 2015 – Randall Edwin “Honeyboy” Duffey
Randall Edwin “Honeyboy” Duffey
August 17, 1907 – February 18, 2000
About a week ago I began to think what I would post for Honeyboy’s (HB) birthday.
Colorado – 1968
One afternoon I was reading a Facebook post by Kevin Cochran – one of my former students. Kevin posted an excerpt from a feature column he had written in a 2007 Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine about the restorative powers of autumn.
While HB did like college football, it was autumn with deer (or any other hunting) season and fishing that restored his soul.
Uncle Dale (as in sister’s name sake) on the left with HB and the fish.
As I read Kevin’s excerpt, I realized there were moments I had been with HB during the waning light as darkness descends watching rutting deer appear among the shadows at the edges of the fields. There were moments when I watched Honeyboy and experienced with him the “quiet solitude” as Kevin describes.
Duck blind somewhere in Louisiana
So for all the Dales, Donnies, Dennys, Gregs, Rays, Davids and everybody else Honeyboy taught to love and respect the outdoors as much as he did, you know you have experienced the feelings Kevin describes with Honeyboy too.
Thank you, Kevin for the beautiful memories of our father, grandfather and great-grand father – Our Honeyboy. Used with permission.
“Autumn is to the year as evening is to the day. Just when fish begin to bite better and rutting deer appear among the shadows at the edges of the fields, the light fades away. We get a brief, frantic flurry of activity in the waning light, then the dark of night descends. Yet in that otherwise bleak night there burns a guiding light, especially for trophy trout hunters in South Texas. While the hoopla over pigskin rivalries, macho hunts for Muy Grande and camaraderie shared by waterfowlers hiding in brushed blinds draw others away from the bays, we keep on plugging in quiet solitude. When other sporting seasons end and winter settles in, our high times are just beginning.”
Photo by me.
Photo by me
Here's What I'm Thinking 
Delia, great memories of days past.
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I do not recall you hunting. Did you? You and I were probably home reading a book. Lol
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I had forgotten how much your dad liked to hunt and fish. Do you know where the picture was taken with the catfish? Was it from Cane River?
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Maybe. But I suspect most of the pictures with Dale Givens were from Colfax and Alexandria and on those lakes around there.
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No other like our Honeyboy. . He followed after his daddy, Papa Ned Duffey….as for the love of the woods. I know they both found God in those woods. Quote from Papa Ned :” I’m closer to my God in the woods than a lot of folks sitting on those church pews”.
Such good memories. Again, no other like our Honeyboy.
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