The Super Combo
Man – I hate to sound like crotchety old “get off my lawn guy” talking about how things ain’t like they used to be, but in my almost 60 years on this planet, I’m afraid that’s what I’ve become. So, here we go.
Back when I was a kid, we didn’t have smart phones or gaming consoles or social media or any of that bunk to help pass the time when school was out. On a typical summer day, we’d wake up, drench a bowl of (probably) cancer- causing multi-hued, smacky-sweet loops of cereal in milk, scarf it down, and head out the door.
From that point on till dark, we were feral We’d meet with other kids in our neighborhood and play sports, ride bikes, shoot bb guns, throw dirt clods at each other and/or just make things up as we went along. It was all great fun.
From what I can tell, kids these days don’t do that stuff. They meet their friends online and put on headphones to converse while playing video games or look at their phones for hours on end. They don’t ride bikes or even go outside much, and there’s not much making things up as they go along, either.
But if you provide the right circumstances, things change. Last week, my wife and I took our nineyear old son Miles to Garner State Park for a few days of camping. Granted, this wasn’t what I would consider “real camping”. We brought our RV.
Each day after breakfast, Miles would be out the door. He met with other kids in our campground, and they made up games, fished, swam, skipped rocks and had a big time. It warmed my heart, for sure.
While the kids were out being feral, the parents got to hang out and talk about grown-up stuff. My wife and I weren’t the only exgame wardens there. Former Game Warden Laura Peterek was there with her family too, so a fair amount of the adult time was spent swapping game warden stories. That’s when Laura told us about “the super combo”, and she wasn’t talking about the license from TPWD or the 2000-calorie burger, Coke and fries you might get at McDonald’s.
Laura and Game Warden Albert Flores were working dove hunters in San Patricio County a few years ago, when they heard a bunch of shooting on a place where they had never encountered many doves or any dove hunters before. The gate to the place was locked, so they grabbed their game warden stuff and hiked in.
The wardens didn’t spend much time watching before they decided to make contact. They didn’t need to. They could tell right away that this was going to be what game wardens call “a good lick”.
Several hunters were spread out amongst piles of corn. When asked for hunting licenses, none of them had one. To top it all off, their shotguns weren’t plugged. These are all big no-nos. Laura said it was like “the super combo” of hunting violations. I laughed - that’s one I hadn’t heard before.
Of course, Laura and Albert didn’t write each hunter for each violation. They educated the group and were as fair as possible when issuing citations. The hunters nonetheless argued and protested as they signed their tickets, and they continued complaining about the way the game wardens treated them on various online hunting forums for some time afterwards. Apparently, some folks aren’t fond of game wardens. Go figure.
Anyway, dove season will be here soon. The 2025-26 Super Combo License packages and other fiscal-year license options will be available August 15. As always, know before you go, and if you’re not sure, call a game warden.
For information on State Parks, go to tpwd. texas.gov/state-parks/.
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