Deer hunting today compared to deer hunting 50 years ago has changed.
To begin with, 50 years ago you could only shoot one deer each calendar year. If you got a deer in October bow season, you couldn’t shoot a buck in rifle season. You were done. Today you can shoot four or more deer with bow, rifle, muzzleloader, and permits.
Deer hunting 50 years ago was serious business. When rifle season ended, some hunters began counting the days to next year. As summer progressed into fall, you began hearing from other hunters how they had seen a large buck in someone’s field.
Dad had two weeks of vacation each year. Dad took one week in the summer, to work on our property in Shrewsbury. The second week he saved for the first week of deer season.
As rifle season neared, excitement grew. We’d hunt rabbits and birds in the month of October, always watching for deer signs, and getting to know the lay of the land.
About the worst thing that could happen to a serious hunter was to get his deer early the first morning. Now, after all of the planning, over a period of months, his hunt was over. Yes, he got his deer, but what to do with the coming week? The fun was the hunt. He could only hunt bear now. In those days, few ever saw a bear. Imagine how he felt the third or fourth day of his week off, when he saw a trophy eight pointer over 200 pounds, and couldn’t shoot it.
The same is true of my buying antiques. The fun is hunting for them. There’s nothing like getting into an old attic. Selling antiques isn’t very exciting – buying is. I think many antiques dealers would agree. It’s about the hunt.
We hunted in Mount Holly and Shrewsbury for years. Dad would be up by 4 a.m., preparing breakfast for Brian and me.
The spider
Dad’s parents were born in the late 1800s. He grew up hearing old names and terms for items that some would not recognize today. He always cooked bacon in the “spider.”
In my grandparents’ time, a spider was used for frying. A spider is a cast iron skillet with three equally spaced legs on the underside. These cast iron legs can be two to four inches long. In the fireplace, the spider was placed on the hot coals. The legs kept the bottom of the spider off the coals so the food didn’t burn.
Back to deer hunting
I can still see Dad in his white long johns. We didn’t put on our outer clothing until we were ready to leave the house. If you did, you would be too warm, and sweat.
The conversations as we scurried around the house so early in the morning were exciting. I was the youngest and looked up to Dad. Brian would always say, “This is it!”
Many mornings were 10 degrees above zero. As we sat in the cold, sweat would freeze and so would we. This is why we didn’t fully dress until we left the house. Dad always made us each two fried egg sandwiches for our lunch. A thermos of coffee was always at hand.
A cold fried egg sandwich with ketchup wasn’t that great, but I was happy to be part of the hunt. We had a 1962 Scout. Dad drove with Brian in the front passenger’s seat. I rode in the back.
We would meet back at the Scout around noon. We’d have our egg sandwiches and report what we had seen. Dad had seen several deer, but no horns. Brian would tell how another hunter nearby got a nice four pointer.
Then we laid out plans for the remaining daylight. Brian would go to the old rusted out Model-T in the woods, Dad up top, where two stone walls intersected, and me down low in the hemlocks. This was our strategy, and it often worked.
Sometimes Ma would write a permission slip to the school excusing me from school as I was out hunting.
This week’s old saying is from Kim Kendall: “Old men get bony asses.”