When i was 16 i wished i was 21. Before i knew it i was and had a wife and kids.
Now i look at my kids whom range fro 51 down to 36 and and wish i was their age. Even the ones in their 50s.
I watch my 2 boys one is 50 and the other is 38 going thru the woods. Up hills and thru the brush with no effort at all and i wish i had that strength again!
I wish they lived closer!
Do ever or often wish about things?
I came from a very poor family. actually "cheap" would be a better word for it.
My dad didn't allow me to get my drivers license until I was 18.
Our camp was 5 miles away.
If I wanted to go hunting with my cousins at camp, I would have to walk to camp, then go out in the woods hunting with them, then walk back home.
Like I have said hundreds of times before, it was nothing to walk 15 miles in one day in deer or turkey season.
Many times I walked as much as 10 miles in small game season - just hunting rabbits. Twice I shot 4 rabbits in one day, without a dog! Both in the fall and after Christmas hunting season!
When I was 36, I was injured in an automobile accident while working for a utility company. After having my back broke, that was the end of hunting like that. I had to learn how to hunt smarter not harder.
I used my brain to figure out where the deer crossed, where to put my tree stand, how to get my truck into the woods, how to get the deer out of the woods.
Even after antler restrictions, but before the Amish moved in, it was nothing to fill all of my tags by the last Saturday of deer rifle season.
Then the deer started to get smaller and smaller until finally a 80 lbs deer was considered a large deer.
Yes, if I was able to walk a couple of miles a day and put on drives I would probably see more deer, but I don't believe that I would be able to run and gun them like I did 16 years ago.
Yes I would have to agree, when I was a young person, all I wanted to be was older. Now that I am older, I can see where a older person needs help and deserves help when they need it.
My friends and neighbors all wanted some FREE deer meat, but none of them offered even a couple of bucks towards my fuel bill. I think I spent about $300 this hunting season just in fuel. All that for just one deer!
Here it is Wednesday, I just finished deboning my deer and I bought the fixins to make sausage, cost me $65 at Palumbo's meats just for the pork, pork fat and seasonings. Another $40 for plastic zip lock bags and Food Saver Bags.
I could have bought beef for what I have into my deer this year.
I feel your pain - wishing your sons lived closer.
My brother lives 65 miles away and I only get to see him one time a year - a couple of days a year when he comes to hunt deer.
To my brother, a deer is pepper sticks and bologna, has nothing to do with actually spending some time with family. They spent more time running back and forth between home and dad's then they did out in the woods.
Saturday, just as fast as the legal shooting hours was over, he was throwing all of his gear into the Tahoe and running back to Greensburg, like his wife was going to leave him if he stayed over night. My dad is 80 yrs old, how many more hunting season does my brothers think he has left in him? My dad felt a lot more like I did then anything else.
I think that Kids, Big Money, Cell Phones, Penn State Football - being a big shot, all gets in the way of my brothers priorities.
In the end the only thing that matters is FAMILY!
Someday they will be all by themselves and when that happens they will wish that they would have slowed down and took the time to smell the roses and spent some time with their family members and not acted like Jerks! You only get one chance. What you do with that one chance is your choice. Hindsight is 20/20..
