2nd Prize
Randy, Wisconsin
“While growing up as a kid my dad and I never really saw eye to eye. I was thirteen and I'm sure you can remember that at age 13 you knew everything! At least so we thought. I grew up in the country hunting and fishing all my life hanging out with the older neighbor kids. Well as the neighbor kids got older they started experimenting with tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. I, like unfortunately too many kids, decided it must be the cool thing to do. Drugs affect everybody differently and now, I realize they made me, mad.
My parents always wanted what was best for me. I was just to stupid to figure it out at the time. One day I came home from the neighbors and had a pack of cigarettes. My dad saw them laying on the workbench in the garage and crumpled them up. I remember shouting at him to “Give me a dollar thirty-five so I can get another pack.” He said “No, I don’t want you smoking!” I reached for his wallet so I could take some money from him to replace the cigarettes. My dad put his elbow out to keep me from reaching his wallet and I started to hit and kick him. After hitting him numorous times, he got me on the ground and held me there to try and calm me down, I screamed “You’re hurting me!” and he let me go. I went right back at him, kicking him in the legs and punching him anywhere I could hit him. I was out of control. My dad went in to the house and called the police. I took the family car for a ride, I was only 13. Later that evening I brought the car back home and went to one of the neighbors house’s and asked him to bring me to town so I could turn myself in. I went to jail that night and had court the next morning. My dad walked in on crutches. I didn’t even have to ask, I knew that I did it. I spent a lot of time in jail and youth homes for a couple months.
Well, it’s mid-November, just a couple month’s after sending my dad to the emergency room for him just trying to bring up his kid right. It’s deer season and Dad and I are going hunting! He said I could use his Marlin 30-30. (This after trying to hurt him real bad a couple months before.) My dad has always been soft spoken. Opening morning of Wisconsin’s 1988 gun deer season, Dad and I were walking out to our stands and he said something I will never forget. Dad said to me, “If it took all of what we went through in the last couple month’s for you to realize how much I love you, I guess it’s ok.” I will never forget that, and he’s never said it again but, I know he does.
I am now a correctional officer for the State of Wisconsin, imagine that!! I am happily married with the best two kids anyone could ask for and my parents, second to none. I always wanted to take Dad out west on an elk or mule deer hunt. I just can’t afford to do it. My dad is now 70 and well, you just never know. (He is, however, probably in better shape than me!) The hunt wouldn’t really matter as long as we could just laugh and have a great time together. I guess until just this moment, I never told my dad that I love him and appreciate him for everything he’s done. I need to do that, and I can’t think of a better way than being on a hunt together. Regardless of the outcome of this contest, thanks, thanks for opening eyes to something I should have done a long time ago.”
I wrote this little Story after my Season had ended for the year. I posted it on Realtree.com forums. I hope you take the time to read it.
Reflections of a Deer Hunter
I was reading a post that Rangerclay (Joe) posted in the Deer Hunting forum entitled "The last weekend of Deer Season". It made me smile to see someone so bummed out about the end of the Season. Before I explain why it made me smile, let's sit back and think about this for a moment.
What is it that each and everyone of us here at Realtree have in common? The answers simple, whether it is Whitetails, Mulies, Blacktails, Pronghorns, or Elk, we all share a love for deer and have a passion for the Outdoors.
What is it about deer that intrigues us so much? Is it the challenge of the hunt? Is it the satisfaction of a perfect shot and the nurishment we receive from it? Maybe it's the adrenalin that screams though your body when you outsmart that big buck that you have spent countless hours scouting and hunting. Maybe it's a way for you to escape the everyday problems that we all have. Maybe it's just sitting back and enjoying what a beautiful job Mother Nature has done. To many of you, it's about spending time with family and friends. Everyone of us can relate to some or all of these things. We are deer hunters.
So, we all know what we have in common. We all know why we deer hunt. What is it that bums us out about the end of deer season? Take a moment and sit back, close your eyes, and think about all of the days you spent in the deerstand. Some days were great, while others we would probably rather forget! One things for sure, something happened to you that brings a smile to your face. For some it might have been dropping something out of your stand and wondering, how could I be so clumsy? To others it may be putting the smackdown on a great deer with a perfect shot! Something happened. For me, one of the things that really sticks out in my mind was, I had a squirrel fall out of a tree while it was trying to jump to another branch and missed!
Deer are very special creatures. Some of you may be asking, what makes them so special? I think Bill Jordan himself summed it up by saying "Family, Friends, and the Outdoors."
To make things a bit easier to explain, I'm going to put a few of you "out there"! Mr. and Mrs. wtnhunt are the first to come to mind as an example of how deer hunting affects a family. I don't personally know either one of them yet, but what I do know, is that they truly love each other and enjoy spending time together sharing their passion for deer hunting. To others it may be spending time with their children or their fathers, one way or another, deer hunting affects all of our families.
Friends. This is the really neat part!! LOL What are you doing right now? Reading this lame post on RT right? Sit back and get the whole picture. Why did you come to the RT forums? Let me guess? You wanted to either share a story about deer hunting or you just wanted to talk about deer hunting! So, now you've talked Deer hunting, Turkey hunting, Fishing, you've seen Andrea with a "high humidity" hair day, you've even seen a beauty pageant!! You have talked about everything that has to do with the Great outdoors and made some very special friends in the process! At this point some of you probably think "sheesh, Randy bumped his head"! Well, I may have but, the truth of the matter is, the deer brought us here. I almost get choked up thinking about Buckee's Christmas Present and some of the disabled kids that have had a chance to go to Wyoming and hunt with Stevebeilgard. How so many of you pulled together when David (Exturkinator) died in a terrible accident and raised money for his family, whether it was carving turkey calls or making arrow wraps, we have all made friends that will last a lifetime!
So why do we get bummed out at the end of deer season? It's the memories, our families, our friends, (new and old) and enjoying quality time with them in a beautiful place that only Mother Nature could have created. For some of us it's the last time we will see some of our friends or family until next season.
Now is the time to reflect on your season and remember everything about it, there really is so much more to it than just killing an animal. In fact, it really isn't even about the kill. It's about Family, friends, and the beautiful outdoors. So the next time you are down because the season is over, take a look at Tominator's signature. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because you were there!"
