A few years back, the daughter of a dear old friend (who had passed 20 years prior) asked me to meet her at her dad's old workshop.
My dear old friend was many things. He was the father of one of my best fiends growing up, he was a WW2 vet...paratrooper from a glider infantry division in the 17th Airborne Division, he was a master longrifle builder and he was one of only 3 other turkey hunters in my whole area at the time I started hunting turkeys. While I had no actual mentor....and we never did hunt together... my old buddy WOULD answer specific turkey questions if I asked him.
So I met his daughter at the shop and she gifted me a box with a a couple of his turkey calls inside. She also said if there was anything else I saw in the shop, I could have it. The shop had been, basically, emptied of its contents. But I spied a board in a pile of lumber scraps on the floor. It was a piece of 8/4" straight-grained walnut about the size of a shotgun stock blank. I said, "How about this" ?? She told me that the whole pile was going in the dumpster, so I could have IT and any other wood in the pile. So I rooted around and also found a 4" wide length of 4/4" walnut. I thanked her much and left.
The wood lived overhead in my shed for a few years when, one day, it occurred to me what I should do with such special boards. I reasoned that, since the wood CAME from the workshop of a master (longrifle builder) it should GO to the shops of other masters (call builders) to memorialize the man who got me more of my start in turkey hunting than anyone else.
So, the journey started with a gab session and showing the boards to Mr. Lamar Williams. I told him the story of my buddy and of my idea. Lamar graciously agreed to take the project on and he took the wood with him.
One day, at a later time, my phone rang. Lamar had gotten a pair of old hen boxes and a spare paddle from the boards.
Lamar also said that there were two pieces of the board left over that weren't big enough to make more box calls. But they'd "make a trumpet". So, he sent the two pieces back with the pair of beautiful box calls.
So, I got on the phone and called Irving Whitt. I told him about my journey and he was ALL about it !! He asked what I wanted. I said, "You just do what you do".....and I sent him a one of the blanks. What Irving sent back was nothing short of AMAZING. A buffalo horn mouthpiece with an ivory spacer....brass ferrule....holly spacer and ebony bell.
"Elated" with what I got from Whitt would have been the understatement of that whole year.
So, with one trumpet blank remaining, at dinner one evening at Unicoi 2023 with Larry Profitt and Ralph Permar, I floated my idea to Ralph. He was very graciously willing to undertake the last leg of my journey. It was just going to be a while. At Unicoi this year, Ralph told me it would be "likely June" when I'd get a call to send him my wood. He wasn't very far off. We spoke on the phone and I decided I'd like one of his 1930 model trumpets. I sent the wood and, in NO TIME at all, there was a box from Ralph in my mailbox !!!
So, it took a few years time. But I have.......to me....one of the greatest call groups ANYONE could ask for. And each call came from the same piece of Pennsylvania walnut out of the shop of the man who, pretty much, lit the turkey hunting spark in me. Had he only known then what he was, ultimately, going to be mostly responsible for....... SHEESH !!!
