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 Old Jasper Blankenship went out to hunt deer the
other day, the same way he’s done for decades now. Deer season has
changed a lot for Jasper over the many years he’s been at it. As a
kid, he couldn’t wait until he was old enough to get a license,
because he wanted to bring a buck home to show his family. Not just
any buck, either, but a big one.
As a young man, he wanted to see how many hunting seasons he could
have in one year: duck, goose, quail, pheasant, deer, about anything
that moved.
As a middle-aged man, he turned to the technology of hunting and
wanted to learn about the newest gizmo that would make you quiet,
make you invisible, make you irresistible to deer.
But things are different these days. Oh, Jasper still enjoys going
through all the outdoor magazines and orders catalogs, and each year
he buys some new gizmo that guarantees to bring home the meat. But
he just chuckles at them, even as he orders them. Hunting, to him,
means a reattachment to nature, a return to his roots. It is a time
to see if his personal skills are still adequate. It is also a time
to sit on a ridge and look around and appreciate what is there. And
if what isn’t there happens to be a deer, well, that’s all right,
too. [to top of second
column] |
Venison isn’t getting any easier
to pack back to camp after all these many seasons, either. But there
is something in the hunt, something in being allowed to silently
stalk the nameless essence of fall, something in moving in near
invisibility.
There is something.
Sometimes it’s just nice to go out there and see what happens.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
Ol' Jimmy Dollar
is Slim Randles' first children's book. The book is for kids
K-3rd grades and is even better when parents read it with children.
Ol' Jimmy Dollar makes for sweet dreams and if you have a dog
even better. Available now on Amazon.
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