My name is Steve Oakley from Burlington NC, now living in Gastonia NC.

After finishing College in 1978, a friend of my Father, an avid turkey hunter and member of the north peidmont section of the NCWTF, invited me to attend a NCWTF meeting in Caswell county, NC. I told him that I had written a paper on the Eastern wild turkey during my senior year as a Biology major. He ask me to come and read my paper because the members would really appreciate and enjoy a recent research paper on the Wild Turkey. The room was full and I was a bit nervous, but I felt honored to present a technical paper to these turkey experts.

I read about a third of the paper then read a reference source and cited W. Bailey of West Virginia and some laughter came from the room full of Turkey hunters. I was somewhat perplexed about their laughter, but I read on. Later, I cited a reference again which was W. Bailey and more laughter came from the crowd and I was really getting confused and upset because their was nothing funny about the material. I received an A for my paper! Finally, I completed reading and cited the primary reference which of course was W. Bailey. There was a lot of laughter. At that point, a tall, white-haired stately gentleman approached me at the front, shook my hand and stated that he would have given me an A as well, and introduced himself, Wayne Bailey. The laughter turned into many handshakes and congratulatory statements.

After the many years, I still enjoy turkey hunting and I'm considering looking up the NCWTF group nearby.

Steve Oakley
Dallas, NC