I miss my Father

Dad was a MAN, only finished 8th grade.
But his outdoor skills were legendary,
Fishing, salt water, fresh water,hunting,
tracking, Trapping, Boating, camping in
winter and rest of year.

I could get book learnin from books,
but nature learnin I got from him.

One year we had to take down our
deer camp tent with a baseball bat,
many heavy snows and melts left
the tent with walls of Ice.

He knew the local river like the back
of his hand, he would catch bass,
and attach a balloon line and turn fish
loose, and watch where it went to find
where the Bass were hanging out.

He could see things I couldn't even when
he told me where to look, deer, mushrooms.
Eyes like an eagle.

Tracking he could tell if it was a buck or doe
by where it was in relation to the other deer tracks.
And he never lost a blood trail.
Some times we would sleep in the woods on a
blood trail until daylight to take up tracking again.

The first time I watched him clean a animal he
trapped I was aghast. He reminded me if needed
these skills could always feed the family.
He had it rough during the depression.
And he marked me in blood on my cheeks
Indian like, I wore the marks to school
but the nuns made me wash it off.
All the guys loved it.

He bought me a 22 cal single shot rifle for
small game hunting, but no bullets, made
me play him poker to win bullets, went
a whole week before I won any bullets,
sure didn't waste them bullets.

He did literally throw me into the water
to learn to swim and then dove in after
me when I was having trouble and taught
me to swim.

He knew all the edible plants, and
we often had sassafras tea, Rootbeer,
in the woods.

He wasn't a big believer in book learnin
but encouraged me, only agreed to buy
me set of encyclopaedia's if I agreed to read
them all, I did.

God I miss Dad.


Gerald

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