Book delivery results in unexpected friendship

Mrs. McCafferty ordered a copy of my book, “St. Tom’s Cathedral, A Turkey Hunter’s Quest For His Best,” for her husband.

They live in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock, about 10 minutes from my home, so it seemed pointless to mail it. I delivered it in person, instead.

I do hope they enjoy the book, but the McCaffertys gave me far more than I gave to them. They invited me in for tea, and then we talked about hunting — mostly turkey hunting — for the next two hours.

Both are avid and accomplished turkey hunters, going back to the 1960s. Back then, Mr. McCafferty said, Lonsdale held the only decent turkey population. If you knew somebody there who would allow you to hunt their land, you were way ahead of the rest of the state’s budding turkey hunting community.

Mr. McCafferty showed me his collection of turkey calls. Some are heirlooms. He let me work one of his box calls, and I felt the weight of expectation as I tentatively swept the lid over the top of the box to try to find the right angle. They both leaned forward with great anticipation of me playing the most beautiful turkey music they ever heard. In music parlance, I dropped a clam. An example is George Harrison’s sour note at the end of his guitar solo in “All You Need Is Love.” He did it live, on worldwide television. I did it for an audience of two. I wasn’t embarrassed. I thought it was funny.

The McCaffertys showed me their trophy room. Its dominant feature is the rack of a bull moose that Mr. McCafferty shot in Maine many years ago.

“I had the whole head for the longest time, but it was so big. It just overwhelmed everything else,” Mr. McCafferty said. “I finally had the rack taken off and got rid of the head. It looks a lot better this way. It’s a lot more in scale with the rest of the room.”

Almost as dominant is the big mule deer head taken by Mrs. McCafferty in Wyoming many years ago.

“I’m going to give that thing away someday when she’s not looking,” Mr. McCafferty said wryly, drawing a harrumph from his spouse.

“People come in here all the time and talk about how big that thing looks compared to all these ‘little’ deer,” Mr. McCafferty said. “I have to explain to them, those are not ‘little’ deer. Those are whitetails. Yes, they are smaller deer than a muley, but those are very nice whitetails. It’s just that she got an exceptionally nice muley that makes the whitetails look smaller than they really are.”

The thought of it rankles him still.

Of course, plenty of turkey capes and fans adorn the wall, as does a phenomenal collection of turkey spurs. Each has a story, and the McCaffertys relived the hunts as vividly as if they happened yesterday.

Impressive in its own right is the McCaffertys’ bookshelf. It is wedged full of classic hunting works from Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark and Col. Tom Kelly, author of The Tenth Legion” the most famous of all turkey hunting books. Mr. McCafferty picked out a spot next to the last in the long line of Tom Kelly books and said, “This is where your book will go.”

It was inconvenient that something stuck in my throat at that moment, right about the same time a speck of sawdust or something got in my eye. I have met Tom Kelly. He is a hero to all outdoor writers. To think that accomplished sportsmen would give such an exalted place in their home to something I wrote humbled me to the core.

That’s why I do what I do, for the connection it makes with people. The McCaffertys are people of my community, but they and many others are part of an extended worldwide community. We all speak the same language.

My goal in writing “St. Tom’s Cathedral” was to create something that would be relevant and resonant for generations. Reviewers put it in that class. For my readers, like the McCaffertys, that have brought it into their universes, thank you.

CORRECTION

In Thursday’s column about the 2022 Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame inductees, I mistakenly identified J.D. Hastings in first reference as winner of the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation’s Legacy Award.

J.D. Simpson III of Little Rock will receive the Legacy Award.