Like many of you reading this, I grew up where hunting was a family tradition. I learned to hunt from my grandfather, my uncle, and my father. They all gave me tips and pointers as my young hunting skills were developing but my most cherished memories occurred around the holidays. Whether we were chasing deer, pheasant or a turkey, hunting around the holidays just had a different feel to it. Hunting always became a staple to a specific holiday for me. I can recall several years just before Thanksgiving where we would go out and attempting to harvest a Thanksgiving Day turkey (it never happened for me in case you were wondering.) Some of my fondest memories were hunting with my best friend and his family. Every Thanksgiving they put on a huge deer hunt and were always kind enough to invite me along. On several occasions they had me in the right place but as a young lad the adrenaline of coming face to face with a mature upstate NY buck or doe always left me with the jitters and I never connected. It wasn’t until I was 16 and was able to drive myself around that I started to venture out on my own. There were certainly a few times I was late to Thanksgiving dinner and ended up getting an ear full from my mother. Fast forward 20+ years and I’m still in the woods or the duck blind on a Thanksgiving Day morning. But it wasn’t until recently that it really hit me why I love it so much. Sure it’s an extra day because I'm not at work to get out and be a sportsman but for me it brings me back to my primitive roots, the bounty of the harvest (or lack there of in my case lately), sharing your wild game with family and friends, and the true meaning of the holidays. Its always been an opportunity for me to do something that I did in my childhood and reflect on the great fun I’ve had with family and friends over the years.
I recently asked my wife if we had anything going on for a specific Friday afternoon one particular day because I was thinking about hitting the woods. She made some snide snarky comment about the near empty freezer and how my attempts in the deer woods have been unsuccessful this year. But let me just say this in my defense, anyone that’s ever hunted the very southern tip of New Jersey understands my pain at this point in the year trust me. None the less she insisted that I go have fun “wasting“ my time. Now I don’t expect her to understand my way of thinking when it comes to hunting because she wasn’t raised in the outdoors like I was and thats perfectly ok. However, what she said stung me a little bit as I headed out to my stand a few days later. I sat in my stand “Wasting” my time for several hours that day perfectly content with life and here’s why. I was outside, I was in nature, there were deer moving, I was anxious to bring home some venison for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was quiet, peacefully quiet. Well, it WAS quiet until some goober on a dirt bike came tearing through the woods 30 minutes before the end of shooting time. But such is the life of hunting on public land. I drove home that evening slightly ticked off but happier than I’d been in a week. You see, the whole time I was outside freezing to death I just thought of my childhood and all the people that helped me learn about fishing and hunting and being a sportsman. Now I shared all that with you to get you thinking about YOUR younger days and how you started off. Maybe you weren't young at all. Maybe you didn't get into the outdoors until the late 20's or 30's but here's what we all have in common. Almost all of us started out learning from someone else whether it was in-person lessons or picking their brain before or after a hunt. Yes, there was trial and error on your own but someone needed to start you off and show you the ropes.
So allow me to share with you a story about how I recently screwed up. While I was getting coffee and a breakfast sandwich on my way to the duck blind the other day at
O-dark-thirty I encountered a young man grabbing an energy drink and some crazy looking coffee with whipped cream and a straw. He was wearing camo just like me and people up at that hour of the morning in this neck of the woods are clearly waterfowl hunters. I said good morning to him and he said “Hi” in return. He checked out before me and I wished him good luck as he scurried out the door. After I picked up my order from the deli I walked outside and over heard him on the phone. It sounded like he wasn’t going to get to go hunting that day after all. I made my way to my truck, slapped the dog box in the back seat because my faithful hunting companion was snoring and away I drove. About 15 minutes up the road after the caffeine had a chance to kickstart my brain I immediately wanted to kick myself in the pants. I had missed an opportunity. The right thing to do would have been to ask the young man if he would have liked to tag along with me that morning. That weighed heavily on me for a few days because as a sportsman I failed. In my mind, I have an obligation to ensure that the newer hunters were being taken care of. Now, there's a chance this lad could have schooled me in the duck blind with his amazing calling skills that he learned on the "You-Tube" or even out shot me all morning long but I'm confident that I could have taught him a thing or two about decoy placement or reading the birds or even how to get the ducks to finish.
So I admit to you that I blew an opportunity as maybe a few of you have in the past. So here’s my holiday pitch.........Take someone hunting who doesn’t have the opportunity to go as much as you whether that's a kid or another adult. Find someone that you can mentor and teach them right from wrong. Let’s face it friends, we all have heard the complaints about the jack-ass that pulls up and tries to set up at shooting time, or runs his surface drive with the amazingly loud muffler a million miles an hour through your set up, or least we forget everyones favorite the SKY BUSTERS. Well what's the first thing we do? We complain about lack of respect and we immediately retreat to “in the old days” Blah Blah Blah. Spreading the Holiday Cheer can happen a myriad of ways during the Christmas Season which includes taking someone hunting with you. Guess what friends, if you're not offering to show the new generation how it’s done right, you're part of the problem not part of the solution.
From our family to yours,
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
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