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Breed of the Issue - Helmet
Helmet- Page 29 - Purebred PIGEON
and the F1 Plainhead/ Domestic Show Flight crosses Bob had. I
also kept one Short Faced cock.
Gerald, Don, Charles and I had all agreed to show Helmets
at an upcoming Oklahoma Show. We all had birds someone else
had raised but we did in fact have a meet. I was hooked again.
A couple of years passed and I was back home in Oregon. I
was trying to raise and show Short Face Helmets along with my
Medium Faced Plainheads. I struggled as before – I just could
not get them out of the nest. The few I was raising were look-
ing better and better. Finally at the last Pennsylvania National
I had raised a couple I was proud of and brought them to that
show. We actually had a pretty good Short Face Meet there. I
had a bird I think was 3rd in the final line up and it also did well
against the NY birds. I needed crest and some neck. I could not
buy it and could not figure out how to raise it. A lot of the NW
breeders were getting excited about Short Faced Helmets at the
time. Dennis Bray had gotten a good start from Myron Berger.
Hank already had his for many years and of course Myron was
still showing at the time. Even Vic Eshpeter was buying short
face to breed. Jim Garus was the only one we could not entice
into short face all though he was back into Helmets with a ven-
gence with his Medium Faced Crested.
I was doing better and better at hand feeding so I was
producing more and more young. All the District 2 Helmet
guys attended the California National. Several of us showed our
Shortface. There came a moment at the show when I could not
find anyone?? I asked several people if they knew where the
guys had gone? The answer I got was they had all gone outside
to look at some short faced Helmets for sale. It was the day we
met Ziggy. They had slipped out quietly to buy some Helmets,
I found them all crowded around the back of Ziggy’s car, each
with hands and pockets full of Helmets. They were all having a
good laugh at my expense.
Ziggy was doing what he liked to do best, selling short
faced Helmets and I was too late for the sale. Ziggy had some
other short faced breeds he was showing me as the guys all
headed back to the show hall with their loot. He said in his
broken English, “I have one more Helmet.” He pulled out a
small box with a really nice bird, head and beak wise, terribly
mismarked – it looked like a splash – but it had a better crest
than anything I had. I bought the bird for less than any of the
others had paid Ziggy for birds that day and immediately started
trimming it there in the parking lot. By the time I got back in
the show hall I had a better short faced Helmet in my hand
than anything they had bought or brought. The guys could not
believe it.
It was a young bird so I got a few years of young out of
that cock bird. I had a hen out of Tony Patti stock at home that
matched up nicely with him. They produced a red cock that was
Reserve in Lakeland Florida, Second Reserve in Vancouver,
and finally Champion in Oklahoma. He then when on to win the
California National. Two of his sons and one of his Grandsons
also went on the win Grand Nationals.•
Short Face Plainheads
comparison to the standarddrawing
By Dennis Manning