Pleasant Surprise

Last night, I took my wife to my local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation's annual banquet. I myself didn't quite know what to expect and was worried because she is not into the outdoors at all. Being a trooper and wanting to try to do something outdoorish with me, she decided to attend the dinner with me. It was at a local VFW hall and when we walked in it was a little crazy with everyone milling around looking at all the prizes to bid on and raffle off. I thought to myself that I hope she doesn't get bored. She walked around with me looking at all the prizes, and I was surprised by the quality and so was she. She commented on how nice a lot of the items would look in our home! Wow, maybe she will have a good time after all. There were about 10 REALLY nice paintings and prints, several guns, furniture, home decor items, as well as a few hunting and fishing items. We then found out the bigger items were going to be auctioned off, I knew I didn't have enough money for that!! But they did have games for earning tickets for the raffles. There were quite a few nice items in the raffles. In short we spent $35 on games to earn a wad of raffle tickets. We ate dinner, which was really good also, then the real fun began. There was an auctioner, and my wife had never heard one before. She thought that was a hoot. Two guys talking fast, and yelling, pointing, that was a show within itself. One guy there bought every painting and print there. He spent atleast $2000, it didn't matter who was bidding against him or how much. He won everyone! People were a little upset that they couldn't buy any of them. After, watching most of the items get raffled off, we thought, we weren't going to win anything. At one of the last tables put on by the Women In The Outdoors, we won an item of our choice. My wife picked up a fleece coat and hat with the Women In The Outdoors logo on it, for our daughter. I didn't win any guns, Darnit!!! Towards the end of the night, my wife started talking to a few women and found out that girls can have fun in the outdoors. One lady she talked with was our local DNR field officer for our county. They hit it off and talked for quite a while. All in all it was a good night, a lot of money was raised for the wild turkeys, but most importantly my wife had a good time, made a few business contacts, and is now going to attend a women's event in the spring with our daughter!!