Mr. Tom and I shared many email and phone conversations. I really do not remember how it got started but we shared a lot on call making. It came up in conversation one time that I had some good Georgia red cedar, he said he would like to see some of it because he had never seen any good cedar out of Georgia. I mailed him enough to make a few calls. He made several fence post calls out of it and several lids out of the rest. He called me and told me it was some of the best cedar he had ever seen and wanted some more. I told him I found the tree dead down in a swamp. The tree had been crowded as it grew among other trees and had no limbs until 20 feet,thus no knots. I told him how I had cut the tree into 8 foot sections and carried out on my shoulders. He included in the description of the calls he made from the cedar that it came from Misery Swamp in Georgia. He did something unusual and made me a box call from some of it. He wrote out the description as Misery Swamp cedar with a walnut lid from Indiana for my friend in Georgia.He gave it a special touch by making a lid silencer from a worn out pair of his garden gloves. I have never seen that on any other call he made and sold. I loved talking to him and we would talk for an hour or so each time we talked. He also sent me hand drawn patterns to make a fence post call. He was very artistic, a stickler for details, and he had beautiful hand writing. He was a true craftsman and he will be missed. I have only one call of his but that is enough.
