A tribute to Dad!

My dad taught me that being out hunting and fishing was the one thing that I’d always be able to rely on for enjoyment and I always have and will thanks to Dad! Here’s a little stroll down memory lane. Dad would always head up North once a year to go deer hunt back when red & black plaid was considered as camo blaze orange. My one regret was that he never took me deer hunting but kids weren’t considered welcome in the old deer camps, due in part to the amount of libations that were consumed during the week, I’m sure… also of note, when I was a kid, there wasn’t any significant population of deer in Ohio which is why he’d always head North. It was funny also because later in his life, I got to guide him on some deer hunts in Ohio where he saw more deer than he’d ever seen up North! LOL!!! I also take pride in the fact that I’ve harvested more deer in my life than he ever even dreamed of harvesting! LOL!!! Dad took me hunting for small game, upland birds & taught me all about trout fishing in places from up North in the U.P. all the way South to Tennessee. He sent me to an Orvis school on fly fishing and fly tying so he could make me his personal slave for tying flies! LOL!!! I enjoy tying flies to! We would go on annual bird hunting & fishing excursions where we’d have a blast. He taught me how to train bird dogs & how much enjoyment I could get from hunting with dogs. He taught me to be a good wild game cook and he instilled the cook what you kill rule in me a long time ago. Even when I started hunting on my own or with my friends as a kid, I was never allowed to have more than a 2 day limit of anything in the freezer before I had to cook! My mom loved the fact that I would cook & I started cooking way before any of my sisters because I wanted to go catch more fish & shoot more small game!

And he wasn’t afraid to push a wagon to the limit in the U.P.! LOL!!!

He only had one brother, my Uncle Frank (Rod to his friends), his older brother and he saved Dad’s life when they were kids. Dad had a kid crash into him while sledding & an old style sled runner punctured him down through his throat and into his lung. Frank scooped him up and ran with him all the way home, almost a mile away so that my grandpa could get him to the hospital, where the doctors said his brother saved his life… Uncle Frank, Hot Rod to his team mates, played football for St. Xavier high school in Cincinnati and at Notre Dame in College. He was on the 1949 National Championship team. Dad was a ND graduate as well & a member of the 50 year alumni club. Dad wasn't near as big as his brother & I was always thankful that I got my height & hair from my mom's side! LOL!!!

Uncle Frank:

Number 61 on the front row.

Here’s some more fun/old time deer camp pictures:

And my Daughter with Dad at her rehersal dinner (I just like this picture):

Dad passed in April of 2006 & I’ll miss him but all that he taught me, lives on!