I’d planned
it as kind of a mini-celebration. A nod
to good health and unchanging—mostly unchanging—interest in hunting deer. I must confess that as the years have flown
by bagging a deer is of less interest than being out in the woods on a quiet
November morning, enjoying the quiet and the beauty, and appreciating being
with my son, and my brother and his three sons as we have hunted together for
many years.
It was my 70th year hunting deer without missing
a single year. Even when I was on active
duty in the army I did not miss opening day of deer season. Opening day of deer season took precedent
over everything including attending a wedding for a couple so foolish as to
plan a wedding on that day or even paying my respects to someone so unfortunate
that a funeral was set on that Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The Friday before opening day this year was warm and
beautiful, in the mid-60s. Shirt sleeve
weather. I went to bed looking forward to
Saturday morning with warm temps and the possibility of a ten-point buck
walking by my place in the woods.
Alas. It was not to
be. I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday
morning to an inch of snow on the ground, the temperature in the low 20s and a
roaring wind out of the north. I put on
all the warm clothing I could find at the cabin, and found my way to my special
place in the woods. But there was no
peace and quiet, only the roar of the wind through the tops of the bare maples
and oaks. No sign of wildlife. No crows, no woodpeckers. No deer.
Just the menacing, mean sound of the north wind that successfully had
chased a warm fall away and was now introducing me once more to winter.
I sat listening to the wind, and thinking about my first
deer hunt. The year was 1946 and I,
along with my father and neighbor, Bill Miller, drove to Adams County, about 20
miles west of our Waushara County farm looking for deer, as there were none in
our county. I carried a double-barrel
12-gauge shotgun that weighed a ton and kicked like a wild bronco. I shot at a deer and missed. I remember it as a dreary, dark November
Saturday but not near as snowy and chilly as my 70th outing. I have
never forgotten that day so many years ago, when deer hunting was one of those
events that helped change a farm boy into a man.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS:
Deer hunting is much more than hunting deer.
Upcoming Events:
November
29.7:00 p.m. Sequoia Public Library, Madison.
Roshara Journal with Jerry and Steve Apps.
December
6, 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.
Writers, Creativity & Aging Fitchburg Senior Center, 5510 Lacy Road Fitchburg, WI 53711 I'll be talking about Telling Your Story. Sponsored by Retiree Rebels.
December
7, 11:00 to 1:00, Headquarters Bldg. Wisconsin Historical Society,
Madison. Holiday book sale—book signing.
December
10, (Time to announced) McFarlane’s Sauk City.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial
Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
\
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with
Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old
Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and
Shadows.)
Also
available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand
Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin
Agriculture: A History.
Jerry’s newest books, Roshara
Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide
book for those who want to write their stories—are also available.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
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