Deeks Decoys

Take any lazy autumn morning after the duck season opens, when the sun is shafting down through an early morning haze and the leaves are turning the countryside into a painter’s paradise. Imagine a quiet slough, surrounded by a few gentle hills … quiet, that is, except for the odd labored breathing from two hunters wading through the thick gumbo at the edge of the slough, dragging a huge gunnysack of heavy wooden duck decoys between them while perspiration drips down their backs. Imagine the men to be John L. Feusner Sr. and his duck hunting partner, and you have the story of the birth of a multi-million dollar idea . … the collapsible rubber duck decoy . . . and the beginning of a rubber products manufacturing business started 67 years ago.