Jammin' at Dale Merritt's Hunting Lodge

Posted by Jennifer

We decided to spend our first Valentine's Day as a married couple out in the middle of nowhere. But we weren't alone. Nope. That's because it was time for the Jam at Dale Merritt's Hunting lodge somewhere in the pine thickets of Sampson County. (Jennifer's parents drove... their GPS said we had left the road and showed us plowing through a forest).

You can always expect to find good food, good friends, and good music at this event which takes place as often as Dale feels up to hosting it. The menu usually includes barbecue chicken and pork, chili made with bear meat, all sorts of salads and slaws, and a slew of delicious home-baked goods brought by the ladies.

After a filling meal and lively conversation, it's time to jam. The group varies each time, but the regulars include David Merritt on the banjo, Wallace Jones sining and picking the guitar and mandolin, Huey Ezzell on guitar and vocals, Jennifer on the fiddle, and Josh McLamb on bass, guitar, and vocals.

Everyone plays until they're tired and ready to go home... which unfortunately we all must be getting old because we tend to knock off around 10:00pm nowadays. But that doesn't matter as we always have a good time playing traditional tunes.

Fortunately, Dale has installed indoor plumbing in the hunting lodge. One of Jennifer's first visits to the hunting lodge involved a rather unpleasant incident with the outhouse. Being a bluegrass musician, she was no stranger to the little house out back with the half-moon window. No, it was the lack of a latch on the door which troubled her. Well, the lack of a latch on the INSIDE of the door to be particular. She entered the humble hut to do her duty and much to her chagrin she had no way to lock it to keep others from entering in. She jerked the door shut hard only to realize that a latch on the OUTSIDE of the door had fallen across- trapping her in the outhouse! "Well, I'm here. I may as well do what I came to do before I worry about getting out," she thought. Fortunately, by the time she finished her "business" she heard someone outside the door- her mother, in fact- and convinced her to set her free from the outhouse.

So why is there a latch on the OUTSIDE of the door, you ask? Well Jennifer definately wanted to know the answer to that most vexing question! It turns out that with only all men lodging there for hunting trips, they weren't embarassed at all by the lack of a lock on the door. But what did trouble them was the flapping of the door during they night as they tried to sleep. Hence, they added a latch on the outside so as not to disturb their slumber.

Some other points of interest to mention about Dale's hunting lodge is that he's got his own clay pigeon shooting range as well as a wild bore kept in a pen as a pet. Only in Sampson County...

-Jennifer