Wildlife banquets a bonus for Garnet

This is the third of a four-part series about the fun involved with attending a wildlife banquet.

We have been discussing the fun of attending the various wildlife banquets offered in the Columbia Basin, during the past two columns. These include Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation and others.

Our last discussion was about the various games offered at the banquets. The last game to discuss resembles the football and baseball game boards used among the employees of many businesses, with numbers across the top and numbers down the left side. A player buys a square for $10 and places their name in the square.

Two drawings take place when all squares are filled. One draws the number across the top and the second draws the number down the left side. The square where these numbers intersect is the winner. The prize is usually a firearm of some type.

My wife, Garnet, has been blessed with multiple winnings over the past 20 years. For example, she won two of three chances in a game at the Potholes Ducks Unlimited banquet.

There were three prizes, a shotgun, a layout blind and a fanny pack. Garnet won two of the three prizes, the shotgun and the layout blind. Plus, she won several of the raffle prizes, as the tickets were pulled from the containers.

Now, please give me a break upon telling you about this and the following happenings. After a few years of Garnet winning multiple prizes, the banquet crowd began to become a bit testy from time to time, but in an amusing manner. As her name was called, several boos were heard throughout the crowd.

At a National Wild Turkey Federation banquet one year, Garnet won a Ruger 10/22 rifle, but that wasn’t all. She also won a Mossberg youth model 20-gauge shotgun.

There was a box labeled a doghouse. The box was about 3-inches wide and 3-foot square.

When her number was called, a couple men approached here offering a candle or a flower vase as trade for the doghouse.

“No,” Garnet said. “I want this for the dog.”

The entire group, a couple hundred people laughed. The doghouse was a doghouse ground blind.

On the way home, Garnet asked if she could shoot a turkey with a 20-gauge? This was the beginning of Garnet’s turkey-hunting career. She shot her first turkey from this blind with this 20-gauge shotgun.

Eventually, she because the first person in Washington to legally shoot three turkey in one day.

Next week: The reason for Garnet’s good luck.