Memes & memories
“SOMETIMES SOMEONE UNEXPECTED COMES INTO YOUR LIFE OUTTA NOWHERE, MAKES YOUR HEART RACE & CHANGES YOU FOREVER… WE CALL THESE PEOPLE GAME WARDENS.”
You’ve seen the meme on social media: “Sometimes someone unexpected comes into your life outta nowhere, makes your heart race and changes you forever… We call these people game wardens.”
Yep, game wardens go to great lengths to “come out of nowhere.” Not only is it an effectiveway to find out if hunters or fishermen are being naughty or nice, it’s also big fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, or the weather is good or bad; if the opportunity for a little sneakiness presents itself, we’ll take it. It’s easy to do at night; darkness is our friend. Butthe daylight… not so much.
It’s hard to sneak up on people in the daytime, but it can be done. I guess the best daytime-sneak I’ve ever seen was performed by Game Warden Bruce Biederman in Willacy Countysome 30-odd years ago. It was midafternoon on a sunny spring day. The wind was humming along at 15-20 mph as it pretty much always does when it’s springtime in The Valley.
Bruce and I were making the rounds when we came upon a high-bank spot along a canal where a vehicle was parked and people commonly fished. We parked a short distance from the vehicle, got out, and quietly
shut the doors before treading lightly down a trail to aspot where we could watch before walking down the bank.
There were some willow bushes that skirted the top of the bank that provided some nice cover to get to our spot. From about 20 feet above, we saw two sixty-something looking men sitting in camping chairs about 10 feet from each other. They were obviously bait-fishing on the bottom. Each had a pole in his hand, and each was intently watching thetops of said poles for any indication of a bite.
We didn’t see any stringers out or any other indication that they had fish, so we decided to head on down - slowly.
We were walking into the wind, which helped. I stopped about midway and watched Bruce continue to walk heal-to-toe toward the fisherman on the right. Neither fisherman looked back nor had any inkling that we were there.
As Bruce closed in, he looked at me and kind of shrugged. He was within five feet, and they didn’t have a clue. He was close enough to reach out and touch the guy, when the man stood up to reel in his line. It was then that Bruce said, “State game warden. Y’all …” Then, like something out of a B-horror movie and seemingly in slow-motion, the guy turned around; his face contorted as he shrieked and flung his fishing pole to the side. His arms came up as if to protect himself from a blow from an attacker, and he back pedaled away.
His fishing buddy jumped up and ran towards the guy to try to keep him from falling into thewater. Bruce lunged with his hands out, too, to no avail. SPLASH!
I guess the only good part about the ordeal was that the water wasn’t very deep. Nonetheless, there was a considerable amount of thrashing before the guy snapped out ofit and stood up. The fact that Bruce had gone into the water and was hovering over and trying to help, probably only made things worse.
As the dust, er… uh… water settled, I don’t think we even asked them if they had their fishing licenses. Best I recall is that we made sure the guy was okay before apologizing and heading on to the next group.
So, I guess for that dude on that day that meme we started with would be spot on. I don’t believe that Bruce changed that ol’ boy’s life any, but I dang sure know he made a memory.
