I was recently sitting in my basement room and came to a startling realization. In this room (which my wife calls my “man cave”) I have many items hanging on the walls and setting on shelves. Included are prints, photos, guns, guitars and other items of interest and nostalgia. There is one area on one wall where I have antlers hanging of the bigger bucks I have shot in my last 20 years of deer hunting in Wisconsin. It was while reminiscing about these antlers that I came to a surprising awareness.
Every antler hanging on the wall triggers a story in my brain: “That one was the one I took over across the railroad tracks, that one was the one by the Blueberry Swamp”, etc. To my great alarm there was one antler, however, of which I couldn't remember the story! I had to think for a few minutes before I remembered that the one on the top, left was the bedded down deer shot in the plateau near the pines.
This episode brought me to the renewed understanding that time clouds the memory even as age slows down the synapses between the brain cells. I then and there decided that I had better write these hunting stories down if I expected to save them.
One of the things that I appreciate the most about hunting are the stories which hunting creates after the fact. I love to hear hunting stories and I love to tell hunting stories! The following is my attempt to save these stories for myself and for anyone else who might give a hoot. If you are one of those, enjoy.
Wayne
(And, by the way, you may click on any picture to enlarge it.)
