Rule #1…. Never, never, never hunt on Sunday… Bad things
happen when you hunt on Sunday… It seemed like every time he broke this rule,
even if it was just to go road hunting, something would break down or get
stuck… I remember more than once, mom having to go rescue dad because he didn’t
make it home when he was expected because he was stuck or broken down.
If someone ELSE invites you to go hunting on Sunday… don’t
fall for it. Otherwise you may have to pay the consequences of “guilt by
association”! A couple of times my mom
had to hike out of the woods with him because she “went along for the ride”…
This lesson was drilled into my head… just don’t do it… it’s not worth it.
A side note to Rule #1… ALWAYS tell someone where you are going
in case they need to come rescue you… ESPECIALLY if you are breaking rule #1!
Rule #2… What happens at deer/elk camp, stays at deer/elk
camp. This would include all pieces of clothing that are worn during camp as
well as stories of what may or may not have happened… since this is an
important rule, I am not allowed to share examples here, because that would be
a violation of rule # 2…If you have been there you understand. If not, it is
something that you just need to experience for yourself.
Rule # 3… Don’t moon your buddies who may have a camera in
their hand. One time he went fishing with my brother and he was down by the
water and my brother was up on a ridge. My brother was taking some pictures of
the scenery and dad thought it would be funny to moon him at the exact moment
my brother snapped the picture. No harm no foul, right? WRONG! My sister in law
developed the film and left the pictures sitting on the counter. Her mother
later came along and was looking at them. There was a small spec in the picture
down by the water and she (my brother’s mother in law) asked, “What kind of
animal is that?” HAHAHAHA! NEVER MOON THE CAMERA!!!
Rule # 4… This is probably the all-time most important rule
to remember…
DON’T YELL SNAKE!!!
My dad was afraid of snakes! Seriously, deathly afraid of
snakes… when I say deathly, I mean do-this-at-your-own-peril.
Since knowledge is power, we quickly figured out the joy of
hiding behind something and yelling “SNAKE” whenever he walked by. One time, my
brothers and I were playing in a nearby field and we caught a bunch of tiny
water snakes and put them in a 5 gallon bucket by the back porch… we had no
idea that snakes could just slither up and out of the bucket without a lid on
it, so when we came back to check on them later in the day, imagine our
surprise when we discovered the bucket empty! My dad was soooo mad. He didn’t
go in the back yard or in the basement for weeks because he was afraid he would
see one. We did find several of them in the basement dead and crusty over the
next several months.
While we had a lot of
fun teasing him about his fear of snakes, it was a very real fear for him. So real in fact, that he carried his pistol
holster over his shoulder when his fished in case he saw a snake. And he always
poked the bank with a stick to scare away anything that was slithering around before
he climbed out of the water… this would be why it’s the most important rule… He
had been known to draw his gun on someone if they came at him with a rubber
snake….. He didn’t mean anyone harm, it was just an involuntary reaction that
he had no control over.
So.. it was good sport to jump out from behind a door and
yell SNAKE, but you had to make darn sure he wasn’t armed and dangerous when
you did it!
This taught me that it’s ok to be afraid. My big strong dad
was afraid of a little water snake. Fear is a real thing and you can’t let it
paralyze you and prevent you from doing the things you love. It is important to
learn to face those fears. Instinctively
he knew that there were snakes in the water, but he went fishing anyway. He prepared himself (with his gun) in case he
came face to face with the source of his fear, but he never let it stop him
from doing something he loved to do.
Many times in my life, I have found myself afraid of
something. As someone who suffers from anxiety, social situations are my “snake”.
I have been known to have an anxiety attack in the grocery store if it is unfamiliar
to me. I hate change and situations where I am not in control of the
circumstances. Social situations and doing new things are very difficult for me
and people often misinterpret me as being unsocial when in reality, I am just afraid.
I try to draw on his strength and his example of not letting fear control my
life and make me miss out on doing fun things because I am afraid of the
unknown. It’s kind of funny that I can stand in front of a group of people and
give a lesson or a talk and not even think twice about it, but one on one
contact in social situations with people who aren’t in my normal circle of
trust is almost as paralyzing to me as a snake was to my dad. My fear is not as extreme as his fear of
snakes, and I don’t frequently go to the grocery stored armed, but the
principle is the same. There are many times
in life when we find ourselves in a situation where we might be afraid to get in the water because we are afraid of what might happen when we climb
out of the water and we don’t know what may be lurking in the grass on the
bank. But we can’t let that stop us from getting our feet wet. I am so grateful
for my dad’s example of learning to face a paralyzing fear and knowing that you
can still find a way to enjoy activities that can cause fear and anxiety. I
have also found that as you do those uncomfortable things, pretty soon your
comfort zone has expanded to include the very things, that at one time, seemed
undo-able.
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