The Rock Wall

I was watching the noon news Friday on Ch. 3 when Steve Grant said a man from El Dorado Springs had been killed. I thought I caught the name but I went back to be sure. It was Clinton Stacy, 30. What an unpleasant surprise. I called Kimball on my cell phone in Stockton. Davis heard what she repeated and I heard him say in the background, “I liked him.” Didn’t we all?

I guided Clint on his first turkey hunt. He had the birds located and come daylight we heard a flock of fall birds in the next field. We slid down into about a 12 ft. ditch at the south end of our field and walked east until we were in line with the turkey chatter.

We peeked into the field and they were close enough for Dad’s shotgun Clint was carrying. He climbed up to ground level and squatted down. I hoped he could figure out the Mossberg Ghost Ring sights. When he shot, the recoil from the 3 in. magnum load of two ounces of No. 6 Heavy Shot knocked him on his back. The flock of turkeys took off east.

Neither one of us saw a turkey go down. When we walked to where the birds had been standing, there laid a pretty little hen with a perforated head and neck. Clint was one proud young hunter. He picked up his trophy, tagged it and we headed to my pickup. We drove to his house.

I showed and told Clint and his dad, how to hang up his bird so it wouldn’t spin as they cut off the tail if he wanted to mount it on a board; skinned it, filleted off the breast and cut off the wings and the legs.

They were hard at work as I drove off.

When Clint and Amanda got married, they always acted like newly weds. The last time I saw them was at the Bulldog Brew. I had seen them many times at church. Amanda is a superb piano player.

Bobby Joe Budd told me he was at a revival at a Missionary Baptist church the night Clint was saved. Later, a church called for Bobby Joe to do a baptism. When he got there, five needed to be baptized and Clint was one of them. Bobby said. “I like to froze to death.”

Clint’s funeral will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday in the High School gym.

KL