Texas Country Reporter turns fifty in October 2022. Each week until then, we’ll share
classic episodes from the show’s history and behind-the-scenes reflections from
TCR’s creator and host, Bob Phillips.
The Fuqua farm near Navasota was well known as the best catfishing spot in all of Grimes County. Every day, Daryl “Buckshot” D. Fuqua answered a knock at the door from some poor soul with cane poles sticking out of the window of his pickup truck or old, beat-up car. One look and Buck knew the difference between someone who was fishing for sport and someone who was fishing to put supper on the table, and if you were in the latter category, Buck invited you to fish for free at his place.
But that’s not what eventually made the name Buckshot Fuqua famous far and wide. It was carrots that caused the calamity.
“That’s my hobby, puttin’ stuff up,” Buck told us. “My mama used to put up stuff all the time. . . . They used to call it cannin’, but I say puttin’ it up.”
That’s the same mama who couldn’t think of a name for him, so his daddy just called him “Buckshot.” The name stuck.
When we arrived at the Fuqua place, we were immediately struck by the passion this man had for canning carrots. To him, he might as well have been launching rockets to the moon or curing cancer—it was that important to him. And that’s what we love about many of the stories we find for Texas Country Reporter.
I think you’ll understand when you watch this piece from 1995.
Buckshot’s wife, Wilma, eventually passed away in 2000, and Buckshot followed in 2015, taking his hot carrots with him. Like most stories we tell, there are lots of things that we don’t have time to include in the show, like the fact that Buck had a big heart and let people fish for free. That’s just one of those things we remember after the time we spent together.
