[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
[January 3, 1995]
[Pages 8-11]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters at Cotham's Mercantile Store in Scott, Arkansas
January 3, 1995

    The President. We have a lot of people who come in who still use it 
as a country store, but as you can see, a lot of people come in and eat 
every day. We have people drive every day from Little Rock. But it's a 
regular pharmacy.
    Q. It reminds me of the stores along that one street in Plains, 
Georgia, where Jimmy Carter lived. They had stores like this.
    The President. They've even got a little museum here that I helped 
them put together, Plantation Museum. You saw that land coming back, all 
that farm land you saw, this is the heart of our rice country. We grow 
about 40 percent of America's rice on the land that we came across 
today.
    Q. Forty percent?
    The President. Yes.
    Q. Wow.
    The President. Arkansas is the number one rice-producing State in 
the country, more than California or anyplace. And you can see why, 
because of all the little--you see all the little rivers and creeks and 
everything.
    Q. You've got the paddies.
    The President. Yes. Good topsoil, and it's also a lot of high-tech 
stuff. They literally flood those rice fields. They have a little laser 
beam that they go down and throw that laser beam across that rice field 
to make sure the water level is just right, not too low so that the 
crop--[inaudible]--not too high so it rots. Just right. It's amazing.
    Anyway--and we also went through--did you see the cotton field we 
went through?
    Q. Sure did.
    The President. And the name of the nearest town to where we were 
hunting today was Cotton Plant.
    Q. Right. In fact, that's the dateline on all our stories.
    The President. And cotton was a big crop here, but closer to the 
river, going back before the Civil War, but back here all the way up to 
the point. But that land, most of that land we saw today, we drove 
across was hardwood forest until the twenties. The timber companies came 
in and tore all the hardwood down. But because the topsoil was so thick, 
because the water was so great, it became great agriculturally. Fifty-
three percent of this State is still covered with timberland. You 
couldn't tell that from today. It's a very different place. But anyway, 
that's----
    Q. You sound homesick for----
    The President. This was all a big part of my political base, all 
these places we've been through here today. I never lost--this State.
    Q. [Inaudible]--county?
    The President. Woodruff County. Benton County is the next----
    Q. Woodruff County is where we were this morning.
    The President. Woodruff County.
    Q. Do you have a recommendation for us for lunch?
    The President. All of our counties here have big sportsmen, like 
Tom's sponsor of Ducks Unlimited. With all these ducks, the sky is full 
of ducks and geese, and they come down from Canada down what's called 
the Mississippi Flyway, right down the river. And the reason

[[Page 9]]

that they're now here is that it's gotten colder up north. The colder 
the weather is, the more birds fly south.
    Q. Will they winter here or move on? They'll winter here?
    Q. The President. No, they'll go further.
    Q. Do you do any other kind of hunting here?
    The President. Yeah. I usually go hunting--when I was living here--
my ears are bad so I don't hunt very much. But I'd usually go hunting--
I'd usually go duck hunting once a year and usually do something else 
once a year.
    Q. Do you have pheasant hunting here?
    The President. No. Turkey hunting, a lot of turkeys, a lot of deer, 
quail--lot of quail.
    Q. Good fishing around here, too, isn't there?
    The President. Wonderful, wonderful. Bass, trout.
    I don't know if you guys saw the--when we were coming up, there were 
hundreds of ducks just like that. That's illegal to stop along the side 
of the road and shoot them.
    Q. Because it's not fair or----
    The President. Because it's not fair and because you can't just stop 
on the road and shoot them. And of course, there's a limit. You can only 
shoot two mallards a day.
    Q. Do you ever feel like a sitting duck resting on the water 
sometime? [Laughter]
    The President. Yes, I do----
    Q. I think that's a political----
    The President. [Inaudible]
    Q. What is the deal with--our driver said if you shot the female 
first, that was it; you don't get to shoot anymore. How can you tell 
what you shoot first?
    The President. You can tell when you go pick them up. [Laughter] 
There are different rules for different kinds of ducks, too. It changes 
every year. But one of the things that--one of the best organized things 
in America is the wildlife preservation. The hunters and fishermen are, 
in a way, the best conservationists in the country. They worked hard on 
this whole way of replenishing the duck species. You can see it--
primarily, in America you see it here on the Mississippi Flyway. And 
then where we are, over on the Eastern Shore of Maryland you see a lot 
where the ducks fly down that way, along the coast, you see a lot of 
that. But there's been an enormous amount of money invested, some 
through public funds, largely through private funds, for things like 
that to replenish the species. And the length of the season, the timing 
of the season, and the daily limits are carefully calibrated to allow 
maximum enjoyment of the sport while keeping the supplies replenished.
    When I was Governor, I used to have a picture on my wall of a place 
in this country about 20 miles from here, back in the thirties, one of 
those open ponds with all the stumps like you saw today. Literally a 
hundred thousand ducks covered it, blanketed as far as you could see. 
And the population went way down. Now it's all been--[inaudible]--I 
don't think it will ever be able to--[inaudible]--we do the same thing 
with the deer population, very carefully managed. And it's a big deal. 
We still have factories that close----
    Q. [Inaudible]--selection of the duck stamp each year now?
    The President. No, I know that--my role in all this when I was 
Governor was to stay up--[inaudible]--fish commission. In a State like 
ours, it's an enormously important thing. Over half the adults in the 
State have a hunting or a fishing license.
    Q. And you do, too, sir?
    The President. I have a lifetime license. After I served as Governor 
for 10 years--you still have to buy the stamps every year, which we did. 
We're legal today. You still have to buy the stamps every year. But I've 
got a--they gave me a lifetime hunting and fishing license. Sort of like 
a gold watch--get to use it.
    Q. Really. That's quite a perk.
    Q. When is the last time you had this much fun?
    The President. Oh, I don't know.
    Q. Never. [Laughter]
    The President. It's been a while. I had a good time. And the people 
I was hunting with today, they've been my friends for 20 years. That 
makes a difference. They're good people, farmers, people I've known for 
a long, long time.
    Q. You said you felt like a real person.
    The President. Yes, I liked it there. Old Bobby Robinson, he came 
out and talked to you----
    Q. He was great.
    Q. Yes, he was great.
    The President. He's the salt of the Earth.
    Q. He was bragging up his wife's breakfast. Was that pretty good?
    The President. Unbelievable. I told Bobby, when I come over to see 
her I don't--it doesn't matter to me what happens, as long as she feeds 
me. [Laughter]
    Q. Is it a combined license in Arkansas?

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    The President. You can. You can buy combined; you can buy separate. 
You can buy licenses--in the hunting season you can buy a hunting 
license, or you can buy a license to hunt separate things by season if 
you want. And also, you can buy different fishing licenses. We have a 
lot of people coming in on weekend fishing trips, tourists and all that, 
so there is a whole--the game and fish commission has a whole different 
menu of things depending on what it is you want to hunt, whether you 
want to hunt or fish, what you want.
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. That's ``American Gothic.'' Have you ever seen it?
    Q. Oh, yes, the original. I hadn't seen this version of it.
    The President. That's just sort of a tongue-in-cheek thing that an 
Arkansas artist did.
    Q. Your favorite?
    The President. Yes, yes. We've got one. We've got the original back 
at the White House. And they've got an old Governor's picture of me, and 
another one about 10 years old, unsigned.
    Q. When you only hunt once a year, how do you keep your timing to be 
able to lead a duck?
    The President. I hit the one. It was on the fly. And the other one I 
hit at a very long distance. It was almost--but it was a very long 
distance. I just--it was a good gun. I had a good gun. It was a little 
Remington with a shorter barrel, three-shot limit.
    That's another interesting thing about this assault weapons deal. 
Some of these people that were opposing the 10--magazine limit on the 
assault weapons overlooked the fact that they were very happy to have a 
three-shot limit on the semiautomatic for shooting ducks. That's the law 
today. And when I was in Maryland last year, I was laughing--some of the 
folks up there----
    Q. You can only put in three cartridges?
    The President. Yes. You put in three, and you've got to--if they 
hold four, you put in three instead of four.
    Q. Are you tickled about the school dedication tomorrow?
    The President. Oh, yes. Yes, I'm real happy about that.

[At this point, the President finished his lunch and then went outside, 
where he again spoke with reporters.]

    Q. You're ducking us. [Laughter]
    Q. Thanks, Mark [Mark Knoller, CBS Radio]. Now you've wrecked his 
mood. [Laughter]
    The President. I'll tell you what, I heard you on that duck call, it 
was like a magnet--[laughter]--come flying into the pond. [Laughter]
    Q. We went out shopping last night. We had to go to three stores to 
get them. We went to Montgomery Ward, and they were sold out of duck 
calls.
    The President. Well, they would be, here.
    Q. Well, they were.
    The President. This is our pastime at this time of year. But you can 
buy--you can have a duck call, pay anywhere from $5 to $125.
    Q. We saw that, $40 for a duck call. The one around your neck looked 
like an expensive one, too.
    The President. Yes. Well, like I said, those are hand-made. And the 
guy that hand-made that is the mayor of Stuttgart, which is where they 
have the international duck calling championship.
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. Oh, yeah. You know, I've worked like a dog for the 
first 2 years. I worked every weekend. I worked at night. And I think I 
need to do a little more of this. And I'm glad I did the work, and I'm 
glad we got done what we did, but I also think it's important to kind of 
keep your batteries charged, your roots watered.
    Q. Batteries charged for the start of a Republican Congress 
tomorrow?
    The President. I'm looking forward to it.
    Q. Somebody has to ask that question, right?
    The President. I'm looking forward to it.
    Q. Not dreading it?
    The President. No. I just don't want to talk about it until 
tomorrow. [Laughter] I want to enjoy my----
    Q. So much for the duck call.
    Q. Got everything?
    The President. No, no. These guys don't have their hamburgers yet. 
They said 5 minutes they'd have everybody's. I'm sorry, I thought you 
all had been fed.
    Q. It's been a great day, Mr. President. Thank you.
    The President. It has. I'm sorry it's raining on us. I guess I'd 
better not go play golf. [Laughter]
    Q. [Inaudible]--worse than when you played golf in Martha's Vineyard 
on Labor Day?

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    The President. Yes, I've played golf in a lot worse. I've played 
golf here in 35 degrees sleet. But I had my uniform. It takes a special 
uniform for that.
    Q. You can't golf in a duck uniform, is that it?
    The President. You know, Hillary gave me a great Goretex suit that 
you can wear in the rain. It's rain-repellent. I've played a lot of golf 
in it.
    Q. Doesn't it restrict your movement?
    The President. No, because it's a double extra large. It's too big, 
so you can just swing away. [Laughter] But it's a--yes, it cuts down on 
your distance. But when you're out there in a hailstorm, you don't 
expect to hit it very far. [Laughter]
    Are we ready?
    Q. Can we get one picture?
    The President. Oh, sure. This young lady made it all the way from 
here to Mount Vernon College. Good for you. Good luck to you. What do 
you teach?
    Q. English, 12th grade.
    The President. Hang in there.
    Q. Are you going to go to the Plantation----
    The President. I'm going to go home and put on some different duds 
and talk to Hillary about it. Then I'll go down to the Plantation 
Museum. Did you see it down there?

Note: The President spoke at approximately 11:50 a.m. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of this exchange.