For it was my older brother,my Dad loved to hunt big game and the barrens for Ptarmigan but work kept him from it until I was well into my twenty's.
My older brother Tommy was an avid hunter and fisherman it seems to me back then it was all he did ,during the winter month's he was daylight to dark checking rabbit slips with as many as 200 out to check on foot!,If anyone in town wanted to know where the big fish hung out or where to get a brace of birds or rabbits he was the man,he always had old Field and stream mags around and I read those cover to cover as a kid before I was big enough to tag along,the first time he took me on the barrens I was about 15 and was carrying an old H&R single 12 and two boxs of shells,I fired every damn one and never drawed a feather !!! he had a limit of course and I complained so much about the walking he swore to never take me again...next Friday my legs were loose again and the blisters were healed up so I was on my knees begging to go again,and so he took me again, and again I missed every shot and complained like a little girl at the end of the day , we went through that routine until I finally hardened to the country ,started to drop birds and eventually I out-walked him.
The passion he had for the country back then was something I wanted so bad
but my juvenile mind just couldn't comprehend....Although today,he rarely has time for the country, his life just got too complicated,but he instilled his passion for the outdoors in me and now I have that same feeling,some of my best times were in the woods with him and Dad (after he retired ) we built cabins in the wilderness,we set rabbit snares and cast for trout and laughed at everything from firing a missed shot to a fart.
I hope someday my two little ones (the only grand kids in out family ) will develop that same passion that was passed down to us .
Great thread guys
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