Jeff Smith interview
Item
Title
eng
Jeff Smith interview
Description
eng
Microsoft Word document, 5 pages
Creator
eng
Smith, Jeff
eng
Montanez, Nathan
Relation
eng
Britto Club
Coverage
eng
Fresno, California
Date
eng
6/19/2015
Identifier
eng
SCMS_brto_00001
extracted text
>> Jeff Smith: So, talk to the chair?
>> Nathan Montanez: Yeah, I’m going to be sitting here, don’t mind – Okay,
everything looks good here. Yeah, we’re rolling. Alright, just give me
your name and spell it.
>> Jeff Smith: My name is Jeff Smith, it’s J-E-F-F-R-E-Y; Smith, S-M-I-TH.
>> Nathan Montanez: How old are you Jeff?
>> Jeff Smith: 74.
>> Nathan Montanez: Okay. How long have you been with the Britto Duck
Hunting Club?
>> Jeff Smith: I originally joined the Britto Club I believe in 1979 or
1980, I was sponsored by Joe Weirick, who I think probably lived to regret
it later. But when my name came up for membership, I was the first person
in the history, 80-year history of the club at that time, to be
blackballed. And it was done in a joint meeting apparently and the person
that blackballed me, was actually the person whose cabin I was going to be
able to buy, he was the retiring member. His name was Three Fingered Jack
Shelbert [assumed spelling]. And he -— he wanted to be able to sell it to
another perspective member that had a lot of money from out of town. So
Three Fingered Jack had too many cocktails after he blackballed me and
Weirick and Johnson and the boys wisely resubmitted my name for vote and
it was passed and I became a member. But I have carried that mark on my
shoulders all these years. It's given me somewhat of an inferiority
complex. But that was the earliest recognition was coming into the club
and Joe sponsored me, took me out on my first hunt. We went to a blind
number, we were going to a blind number two and it was in the fog and this
experienced member walked me all the way over to blind number five and we
had to do a round trip to get to back to number two, which exhausted both
of us at the time. And, the experiences I've had at the Britto Duck Club
are insurmountable as far as comradeship and the beauty of the outdoors.
I'm reputed to be the worst shot in the club, but I don't care, I have
fun. And. It's something that goes on and on and on, what we do out there
and I've enjoyed it thoroughly, I’ve got Three Fingered Jack's cabin,
remodeled it and one of the members brought me a sign that he found in a
ditch and it was an old sign about movie rentals and so I put that on top
of my cabin and I would show progressive videos in my cabin, little bit
beyond PG-13 and the old boys used to come over and line up on my couch
and they'd all be in their cups and I'd turn on the videos for them and
watch them pretty soon you know just like crows, their heads would begin
to drop, they'd all go to sleep, so then I could go sleep and the movies
would go on and I'd just go to bed. One of these members and this is the
kind of people they are, one of the members was in his cups and leaving in
the dark and I didn't have stairs off my porch, well he fell off the porch
into the rocks and I didn't know anything about it and I came back the
next weekend, he’d built stairs for me. And these were the kind of people
that are out there, they're real genuine people, not phony people or
hypocritical type people. They're out there to enjoy each other. I was out
there, still am, naturally too, I enjoy the comradeship as much as I do
the hunting and the beauty as part of the whole thing. My bag is always
very light of ducks when I go back home. The guys mentioned Bill
Crossland, I think my earliest experience of this man, was we were all in
a, I think in a general meeting or we were all together for a social event
all in one big room, Bill came in, he was wearing heavy blue serge pants,
bullet proof you know, fly unzipped wide open, he walks in, drunk really
drunk and I loved it and he stood in front of all of us, he recited every
-— he recited the complete Raven from Edgar Allen Poe, from beginning to
end without missing a beat. I'll never forget that as long as I live. And
that was the kind of person he was. And I think Bob Johnson told me he
would write poems for his wife and drive her in the mountains in the
summer time and read poetry to her. You know that's pretty special. Other
things that I really remember are, you know, just going out after a shoot,
cleaning the birds were all lined up there and these pluckers and feathers
flying getting stuck all over us and talking about, it's just like coming
in from the golf course, we talk about, you know like, I was behind this
bird or I was ahead of this bird and then I nailed this bird and that kind
of stuff; you know, all that kind of talk. And. That's what it's all about
and being out there and enjoying each other. And of course, you know, the
feeds, you know we had our feeds, which you know, you know about already
but, they're very special events. They're very, very special events and I
think that at the time when we have guests, there are you know.
Occasionally we bring out guest; these people are just overwhelmed by what
it is and what the tradition of the club is. I can't really talk enough
about it but you know, sitting there in our cabin, sunset having a couple
of cocktails and looking out the window and seeing 500 maybe 1,000 geese
fly over, you know, shadows, some of them are in the sunlight, some are in
the shadows, it's exquisite. I can't. I'm running out here.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there any memorable moments? Like is there
something you always think about when you go out there that always takes
you back kind of thing?
>> Jeff Smith: A special moment?
>> Nathan Montanez: Yeah.
>> Jeff Smith: No, cause there's too many special moments. Although, you
know, I remember one time we had wives night and we're all out there and
my wife was not really into this kind of thing going out to the Duck Club,
I mean she had really pretty fingernails and all that kind of stuff. And
we went out and went to the Wool Growers and partied and very early in the
morning I think it was barely sunrise and all our roof's on these
buildings are metal and with no insulation underneath, one of them went
out and started throwing rocks on the top of our roof, my wife went, just
“shoo” [sound effect], right through the roof, that was it, she never came
back to the duck club. That was kind of a funny moment. Other than that, I
think that the traditions of the duck club that we've had all these years
have brought tremendous memories and that we're going through kind of a, I
think kind of, I don't know what you call a flux or not. But, when we came
into the club we were kind of newer members, the younger group and there
was the older group that all used to come into my bijou to watch the
movies, well that older group is pretty much now gone. Now like it or not
we have become the older group and the philosophy of the club is still the
same because of the traditions but we have the newer members, their
thinking is different than ours, so maybe there can be some minor
conflicts, but these newer members are all wonderful kids. I view them as
kids and they're in their 30s or 40s, but it's a generational difference
in thinking now and which you know, its, you see it in every phase of our
life out there. And so you know, there's once in a while there's a little
bit of tension but these kids —- guys are wonderful and they are very
protective of the club and what goes on. So I think it's a very, very
healthy situation that we have and I think that the future of the club is
in very, very good hands with what is transpiring out there. You know
these kids their values are different but some of the values they have I
think are probably better than ours, they don't have R rated movies
anymore out there, so to speak, so look, you know, those things change and
I think that's for the good. I'm running out again.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything you gentlemen would like to ask him
that he hasn't covered that you know he knows that I don't?
>> Bob Johnson: Jeff left the club for a while, but you left the club and
you [inaudible].
>> Jeff Smith: I did and I left the club about 2003 or 4 I think for about
an eight year hiatus and just recently came back into the club about three
years ago. And. You know the waiting lists are very long to get into these
clubs but some of these people seem to be able to do some mysterious
things and why they ever wanted to have me back in again, I'm not really
sure and some of them may even be regretting it again; but, I got back in
and you're going to have to pull my fingernails out to get me out again. I
regret every time I'm out there that I missed those days, and I missed
that companionship. I remember Bob took me out three or four years ago and
I hadn't been out there in eight years and I was hugging people and very
special.
>> Nathan Montanez: You need a moment? [Laughter] You need a minute for?
>> Jeff Smith: Pardon me?
>> Nathan Montanez: Nothing. It’s, like are you okay?
>> Jeff Smith: Yeah, yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now where are you originally from? How do you know
these gentlemen?
>> Jeff Smith: I think and I was kind of thinking back, I think that we
had an acquaintance that introduced me to both Joe and Bob and I really
got to know Joe through skiing, you know he, I got into, again, a men's
ski group called the BBD and we’d go on ski trips once a year. Joe got me
going in that and other acquaintance got me interested in that and I think
that's where I got to know Joe and through that, those acquaintances I got
to know Bob and I've been, I think with Bob and Joe, gosh, we've been
friends for 40 years, at least I would imagine at this time. So yeah,
there's a lot of water that's gone under the bridge, not only the Britto
Bridge but the Fresno Bridge. Of history between us.
>> Nathan Montanez: I feel like —- I feel like you have a lot of good
stories, and I want to try and pull them out of you, but I'm trying to
>> Bob Johnson: Those stories were. You know, we have stories of Frank
[inaudible] driving into the ditch. Some things like this. There —- there.
I don’t know, it’s like every time we go out there it’s a story. It’s just
every time we go out there, it’s special and uh, we can sit down and talk
about how was your week. “You can’t believe what happened to me this
week.” So you know, you just unload. It’s just -- It’s just a fun thing.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything you would like to add?
>> Jeff Smith: I -—
>> Nathan Montanez: Maybe people don't know about the club or something
like that.
>> Jeff Smith: I remember, well I remember one story, this is about Joe
and Joe was telling me this story, I think he was out shooting and he had
a gun called a Browning A5 and it was kind of the envied gun, you know, it
was the duck shooter's gun, 12-gauge semi-automatic and he told me one
time, he was out hunting drawing down, the birds were coming in and his
whole gun just exploded, I think went all over the blind and we all
laughed about that. And the other time I remember Joe's stories, I don't
have the stories to tell, Joe makes the stories. And one of the other
stories, we used to go in, actually this —- our age group, used to go into
the Wool Growers on Tuesday nights before Wednesday's shoots, then we'd go
in, we'd have cocktails and social hour at the club then we drive into the
Wool Grower's and we'd have these, go to the bars, one of the best bars in
California and have Basque drinks called Picons and we did our gambling
there, a little dice; and then we'd go in for dinner, huge dinner, more
wine, more Picons, so by that time, we're pretty well cranked up and then
we'd maybe go play pool or something like that, some endeavors like that.
And one night we came home. And, all said goodnight and we got up the next
morning and Joe's cabin was raised and there was water underneath it, and
he had, so he had a plank that he had to walk across to get into his
cabin, well Joe didn't make it past the plank and the next morning he woke
up like this, spread out on a eight by twelve plank and that's where he
came in the deal. And then another Joe story was, I think he told me this,
he was with his father and I think Bud Hill[assumed spelling] and some
other guys and they had all been into the club or into the Wool Growers
doing their thing and they were coming back and coming back down this
almond road or whatever there was kind of a bridge and when you went over
the bridge the car would kind of drop and -— and the, well the car and Joe
was going too fast, the car dropped, his father, nobody knew it but his
father went up and hit his head or something like that, it was something,
they came down got to the Duck Club, Joe's father never said anything but
apparently his face was just covered in blood, is that a true story?
[Looks to Bob Johnson off camera] Yeah, he acknowledges it's a true story
[laughter]. And then we had another member one night, same –- same -— same
basically the stories kind of follow along on the same line, there's
maybe, some of us have too much in our cups. One of our members on a rainy
soggy night drove off the road into a ditch and the ditches are eight feet
deep or something like that. There's this truck like this and the ditch,
we all went out to try and rescue him. We couldn't do it, we had heavy
equipment, Caterpillars, the thing went on forever trying to get this
truck out of the ditch ‘cause you know that -— that earth out there is a
clay sediment of some kind so it's really slick when you get on it. You
can slide off, if you're going too fast on those ditch roads, you can
slide off in a moment's notice. I had an old International when I was
first a member there, it's called an International Harvester and it was my
mom's car, I called it, she called it the Grim Reaper and Joe liked the
Grim Reaper because it was really heavy and we could go fast in it, on -on the ditches. Those are some of the stories and my very first place that
I stayed when I was a member was actually was in a 20-foot old airstream
trailer that was parked off to the side and it was actually Bill
Chandler's trailer when he first joined as a member I believe and I bought
it from Bill Chandler, but the trailer was actually a construction trailer
for the railroad out there somewhere so it had like a full-size shower and
kind of a full-size bathroom that kind of stuff but it was not, it was not
a luxury thing, it didn't have any kind of a construction trailer and that
was kind of fun and actually I took that and took it home one time and
fixed it up and took it up to Canada, well which is another story in
itself. I, you know there's some, there are so many memories and things
that go on out there, I think you, particularly me at my age I tend to
forget more than I can remember but it's the —- it’s the fellowship,
that's what it's all about.
>> Nathan Montanez: Yeah, I’m going to be sitting here, don’t mind – Okay,
everything looks good here. Yeah, we’re rolling. Alright, just give me
your name and spell it.
>> Jeff Smith: My name is Jeff Smith, it’s J-E-F-F-R-E-Y; Smith, S-M-I-TH.
>> Nathan Montanez: How old are you Jeff?
>> Jeff Smith: 74.
>> Nathan Montanez: Okay. How long have you been with the Britto Duck
Hunting Club?
>> Jeff Smith: I originally joined the Britto Club I believe in 1979 or
1980, I was sponsored by Joe Weirick, who I think probably lived to regret
it later. But when my name came up for membership, I was the first person
in the history, 80-year history of the club at that time, to be
blackballed. And it was done in a joint meeting apparently and the person
that blackballed me, was actually the person whose cabin I was going to be
able to buy, he was the retiring member. His name was Three Fingered Jack
Shelbert [assumed spelling]. And he -— he wanted to be able to sell it to
another perspective member that had a lot of money from out of town. So
Three Fingered Jack had too many cocktails after he blackballed me and
Weirick and Johnson and the boys wisely resubmitted my name for vote and
it was passed and I became a member. But I have carried that mark on my
shoulders all these years. It's given me somewhat of an inferiority
complex. But that was the earliest recognition was coming into the club
and Joe sponsored me, took me out on my first hunt. We went to a blind
number, we were going to a blind number two and it was in the fog and this
experienced member walked me all the way over to blind number five and we
had to do a round trip to get to back to number two, which exhausted both
of us at the time. And, the experiences I've had at the Britto Duck Club
are insurmountable as far as comradeship and the beauty of the outdoors.
I'm reputed to be the worst shot in the club, but I don't care, I have
fun. And. It's something that goes on and on and on, what we do out there
and I've enjoyed it thoroughly, I’ve got Three Fingered Jack's cabin,
remodeled it and one of the members brought me a sign that he found in a
ditch and it was an old sign about movie rentals and so I put that on top
of my cabin and I would show progressive videos in my cabin, little bit
beyond PG-13 and the old boys used to come over and line up on my couch
and they'd all be in their cups and I'd turn on the videos for them and
watch them pretty soon you know just like crows, their heads would begin
to drop, they'd all go to sleep, so then I could go sleep and the movies
would go on and I'd just go to bed. One of these members and this is the
kind of people they are, one of the members was in his cups and leaving in
the dark and I didn't have stairs off my porch, well he fell off the porch
into the rocks and I didn't know anything about it and I came back the
next weekend, he’d built stairs for me. And these were the kind of people
that are out there, they're real genuine people, not phony people or
hypocritical type people. They're out there to enjoy each other. I was out
there, still am, naturally too, I enjoy the comradeship as much as I do
the hunting and the beauty as part of the whole thing. My bag is always
very light of ducks when I go back home. The guys mentioned Bill
Crossland, I think my earliest experience of this man, was we were all in
a, I think in a general meeting or we were all together for a social event
all in one big room, Bill came in, he was wearing heavy blue serge pants,
bullet proof you know, fly unzipped wide open, he walks in, drunk really
drunk and I loved it and he stood in front of all of us, he recited every
-— he recited the complete Raven from Edgar Allen Poe, from beginning to
end without missing a beat. I'll never forget that as long as I live. And
that was the kind of person he was. And I think Bob Johnson told me he
would write poems for his wife and drive her in the mountains in the
summer time and read poetry to her. You know that's pretty special. Other
things that I really remember are, you know, just going out after a shoot,
cleaning the birds were all lined up there and these pluckers and feathers
flying getting stuck all over us and talking about, it's just like coming
in from the golf course, we talk about, you know like, I was behind this
bird or I was ahead of this bird and then I nailed this bird and that kind
of stuff; you know, all that kind of talk. And. That's what it's all about
and being out there and enjoying each other. And of course, you know, the
feeds, you know we had our feeds, which you know, you know about already
but, they're very special events. They're very, very special events and I
think that at the time when we have guests, there are you know.
Occasionally we bring out guest; these people are just overwhelmed by what
it is and what the tradition of the club is. I can't really talk enough
about it but you know, sitting there in our cabin, sunset having a couple
of cocktails and looking out the window and seeing 500 maybe 1,000 geese
fly over, you know, shadows, some of them are in the sunlight, some are in
the shadows, it's exquisite. I can't. I'm running out here.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there any memorable moments? Like is there
something you always think about when you go out there that always takes
you back kind of thing?
>> Jeff Smith: A special moment?
>> Nathan Montanez: Yeah.
>> Jeff Smith: No, cause there's too many special moments. Although, you
know, I remember one time we had wives night and we're all out there and
my wife was not really into this kind of thing going out to the Duck Club,
I mean she had really pretty fingernails and all that kind of stuff. And
we went out and went to the Wool Growers and partied and very early in the
morning I think it was barely sunrise and all our roof's on these
buildings are metal and with no insulation underneath, one of them went
out and started throwing rocks on the top of our roof, my wife went, just
“shoo” [sound effect], right through the roof, that was it, she never came
back to the duck club. That was kind of a funny moment. Other than that, I
think that the traditions of the duck club that we've had all these years
have brought tremendous memories and that we're going through kind of a, I
think kind of, I don't know what you call a flux or not. But, when we came
into the club we were kind of newer members, the younger group and there
was the older group that all used to come into my bijou to watch the
movies, well that older group is pretty much now gone. Now like it or not
we have become the older group and the philosophy of the club is still the
same because of the traditions but we have the newer members, their
thinking is different than ours, so maybe there can be some minor
conflicts, but these newer members are all wonderful kids. I view them as
kids and they're in their 30s or 40s, but it's a generational difference
in thinking now and which you know, its, you see it in every phase of our
life out there. And so you know, there's once in a while there's a little
bit of tension but these kids —- guys are wonderful and they are very
protective of the club and what goes on. So I think it's a very, very
healthy situation that we have and I think that the future of the club is
in very, very good hands with what is transpiring out there. You know
these kids their values are different but some of the values they have I
think are probably better than ours, they don't have R rated movies
anymore out there, so to speak, so look, you know, those things change and
I think that's for the good. I'm running out again.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything you gentlemen would like to ask him
that he hasn't covered that you know he knows that I don't?
>> Bob Johnson: Jeff left the club for a while, but you left the club and
you [inaudible].
>> Jeff Smith: I did and I left the club about 2003 or 4 I think for about
an eight year hiatus and just recently came back into the club about three
years ago. And. You know the waiting lists are very long to get into these
clubs but some of these people seem to be able to do some mysterious
things and why they ever wanted to have me back in again, I'm not really
sure and some of them may even be regretting it again; but, I got back in
and you're going to have to pull my fingernails out to get me out again. I
regret every time I'm out there that I missed those days, and I missed
that companionship. I remember Bob took me out three or four years ago and
I hadn't been out there in eight years and I was hugging people and very
special.
>> Nathan Montanez: You need a moment? [Laughter] You need a minute for?
>> Jeff Smith: Pardon me?
>> Nathan Montanez: Nothing. It’s, like are you okay?
>> Jeff Smith: Yeah, yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now where are you originally from? How do you know
these gentlemen?
>> Jeff Smith: I think and I was kind of thinking back, I think that we
had an acquaintance that introduced me to both Joe and Bob and I really
got to know Joe through skiing, you know he, I got into, again, a men's
ski group called the BBD and we’d go on ski trips once a year. Joe got me
going in that and other acquaintance got me interested in that and I think
that's where I got to know Joe and through that, those acquaintances I got
to know Bob and I've been, I think with Bob and Joe, gosh, we've been
friends for 40 years, at least I would imagine at this time. So yeah,
there's a lot of water that's gone under the bridge, not only the Britto
Bridge but the Fresno Bridge. Of history between us.
>> Nathan Montanez: I feel like —- I feel like you have a lot of good
stories, and I want to try and pull them out of you, but I'm trying to
>> Bob Johnson: Those stories were. You know, we have stories of Frank
[inaudible] driving into the ditch. Some things like this. There —- there.
I don’t know, it’s like every time we go out there it’s a story. It’s just
every time we go out there, it’s special and uh, we can sit down and talk
about how was your week. “You can’t believe what happened to me this
week.” So you know, you just unload. It’s just -- It’s just a fun thing.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything you would like to add?
>> Jeff Smith: I -—
>> Nathan Montanez: Maybe people don't know about the club or something
like that.
>> Jeff Smith: I remember, well I remember one story, this is about Joe
and Joe was telling me this story, I think he was out shooting and he had
a gun called a Browning A5 and it was kind of the envied gun, you know, it
was the duck shooter's gun, 12-gauge semi-automatic and he told me one
time, he was out hunting drawing down, the birds were coming in and his
whole gun just exploded, I think went all over the blind and we all
laughed about that. And the other time I remember Joe's stories, I don't
have the stories to tell, Joe makes the stories. And one of the other
stories, we used to go in, actually this —- our age group, used to go into
the Wool Growers on Tuesday nights before Wednesday's shoots, then we'd go
in, we'd have cocktails and social hour at the club then we drive into the
Wool Grower's and we'd have these, go to the bars, one of the best bars in
California and have Basque drinks called Picons and we did our gambling
there, a little dice; and then we'd go in for dinner, huge dinner, more
wine, more Picons, so by that time, we're pretty well cranked up and then
we'd maybe go play pool or something like that, some endeavors like that.
And one night we came home. And, all said goodnight and we got up the next
morning and Joe's cabin was raised and there was water underneath it, and
he had, so he had a plank that he had to walk across to get into his
cabin, well Joe didn't make it past the plank and the next morning he woke
up like this, spread out on a eight by twelve plank and that's where he
came in the deal. And then another Joe story was, I think he told me this,
he was with his father and I think Bud Hill[assumed spelling] and some
other guys and they had all been into the club or into the Wool Growers
doing their thing and they were coming back and coming back down this
almond road or whatever there was kind of a bridge and when you went over
the bridge the car would kind of drop and -— and the, well the car and Joe
was going too fast, the car dropped, his father, nobody knew it but his
father went up and hit his head or something like that, it was something,
they came down got to the Duck Club, Joe's father never said anything but
apparently his face was just covered in blood, is that a true story?
[Looks to Bob Johnson off camera] Yeah, he acknowledges it's a true story
[laughter]. And then we had another member one night, same –- same -— same
basically the stories kind of follow along on the same line, there's
maybe, some of us have too much in our cups. One of our members on a rainy
soggy night drove off the road into a ditch and the ditches are eight feet
deep or something like that. There's this truck like this and the ditch,
we all went out to try and rescue him. We couldn't do it, we had heavy
equipment, Caterpillars, the thing went on forever trying to get this
truck out of the ditch ‘cause you know that -— that earth out there is a
clay sediment of some kind so it's really slick when you get on it. You
can slide off, if you're going too fast on those ditch roads, you can
slide off in a moment's notice. I had an old International when I was
first a member there, it's called an International Harvester and it was my
mom's car, I called it, she called it the Grim Reaper and Joe liked the
Grim Reaper because it was really heavy and we could go fast in it, on -on the ditches. Those are some of the stories and my very first place that
I stayed when I was a member was actually was in a 20-foot old airstream
trailer that was parked off to the side and it was actually Bill
Chandler's trailer when he first joined as a member I believe and I bought
it from Bill Chandler, but the trailer was actually a construction trailer
for the railroad out there somewhere so it had like a full-size shower and
kind of a full-size bathroom that kind of stuff but it was not, it was not
a luxury thing, it didn't have any kind of a construction trailer and that
was kind of fun and actually I took that and took it home one time and
fixed it up and took it up to Canada, well which is another story in
itself. I, you know there's some, there are so many memories and things
that go on out there, I think you, particularly me at my age I tend to
forget more than I can remember but it's the —- it’s the fellowship,
that's what it's all about.