Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander

it turned out. There is a God, and He blessed us because we did what was right—we loved Him, we loved our neighbor, and we hunted ducks. He is real and what He said He would do is what happened. He said, you love Me and do what’s right, and I’ll bless you—so much so that your barns will be full, packed full, tapped down, and running over. I only know that either our success came from Him orI was one of the luckiest souls that ever came along with a little idea. All I can say is it’s one or the other, but I’m leaning toward the Almighty doing exactly what He said He would do.
    The Almighty blessed us, and Duck Commander did work, just like He said it would. Yes, it took a long, long time for us to get to where we are today. But even before our success, and long before Duck Dynasty came along, everybody was happy, happy, happy. In other words, it wasn’t like my love for the Almighty was contingent upon whether the blessings came or not. My prayer was always: “Lord, if You bless me, I’ll thank You; but if You don’t, I’ll be thankful for what I have. I have plenty. I’m in good shape.” Even before our success came along, we had air-conditioning, color TV, hot water, and a bathtub. We had everything we needed. When I was a boy, we didn’t even have bathtubs or commodes, but I was still as happy and content as I am today. As long as I was doing what God said was right and living my life for Him, I knew everything would work out in the end—one way or another.

IF IT SOUNDS LIKE A DUCK . . .
    Rule No. 10 for Living Happy, Happy, Happy
    If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Right (Instead of Doing It Again)
    W hen I was a bit of a wild child during the 1960s, one of my favorite musicians was Jimi Hendrix. A masterful showman, Hendrix was a brilliant experimentalist and one of the most influential musicians in history. Hendrix had an incredible ability to manipulate a six-string guitar and distort it to make sounds no one would have believed possible. You know what was most amazing about Hendrix? That sucker never learned to read music! He learned to play guitar by ear but did more with it than anyone before him or anyone since.
    Now imagine trying to replicate a duck’s sound by ear—without a duck’s bill! When we’re building duck calls, we try to use the same methods as people trying to learn to play music by ear. They can’t read musical notes or charts, but when they hearnotes, they memorize them, and then they sit down at a piano and play exactly what they heard. They duplicate the sounds in their heads and play them from memory. We do the same thing with duck calls. We hear ’em while we’re out hunting, and then we build a device that sounds exactly like what we heard. Just like on a piano, we have to make sure we have the right pitch, note, inflection, and volume to ensure that our duck calls sound exactly like a mallard, green-winged teal, wood duck, American wigeon, or whatever duck species we’re trying to imitate.
    It isn’t easy, and it requires a lot of trial and error to get a duck call to sound exactly right. After all, it’s not like we were trying to replicate Daffy Duck— thufferin’ thuccotash! Each duck species has a very unique and distinct sound; you can’t call a wood duck with a green-winged teal call or vice versa. And this probably won’t surprise you, but female ducks always sound different from males, even if they’re of the same species.
    Despite all the variations in sounds, what we’ve discovered over the years is that if a duck whistles, then you use a whistle to duplicate the sound. If a duck quacks, you use a call with a reed in it. One species of duck—the gadwall—requires both a whistle and a reed.
    We build calls for all kinds of ducks. There is a certain percentage of waterfowl hunters who are mallard purists, but we appreciate all ducks. Of course, there are a few species that we’lldraw the line on and won’t eat. We don’t eat the common merganser, and I understand there are particular sea ducks that are nearly inedible. For us, it’s just as much fun to hunt wood ducks as mallards or green-winged teals. I think the most elegant, graceful duck is the pintail. For good table fare, our favorite ducks are the green-winged teals and close behind them are the wood ducks. If we really want a good duck gumbo or duck with dressing, we almost always go for the green-winged teal. They go fast around our table, especially if Willie has