Tennessee Deer Talk: Thought I'd share...

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#1876834 - 04/08/10 07:47 AM

Thought I'd share...

bowriter
Non-Typical

Registered: 08/31/02
Posts: 40337
Loc: Lebanon,TN USA

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Outdoors With John L. Sloan
April 7, 2010 copyright April 2010

This Business of Getting Older.

I have come to realize there are some advantages to aging. First and foremost is grandkids. You can cuddle with them, spoil them and hug them and then send them home. You don’t have to change their diapers and as far as I can tell, you don’t have to breast feed them. But most of the time they smell good and are warm and grin a lot.

Another advantage is you can sleep late if you want to. You mow the grass on your schedule and if you want to spend all day in your underwear, if you don’t go to town, nobody much cares. Oh, sometimes the lady that delivers the mail may give you a funny look but who cares?

See, you can also fix whatever you want for lunch or skip it completely. Then you can sit around and think of stories to tell your family so they get to know you better.

And truth to be told, if you decide to have an adult beverage in the middle of the afternoon you can do that. If you think it would be a good day to go fishing-go. If you want to go hunt mushrooms, (morels) go. If you feel in the mood for some black bean chili, fix it. If you don’t feel like taking a shower, don’t.

But one thing you have to do is get out of the house. You can’t just sit there and vegetate. Doesn’t matter what you do…just do something. Now comes the important part.

Think about the information you have to share. Think of what all you have learned and how much you can share with your kids and grandkids. Think of the little pieces of information you can share. Lately I have been helping friends scout and giving advice on the way to trail wounded deer. Couple guys got on me about some of my methods. One of the other guys said, “Sloan has trailed more deer than you have seen in your life. Better listen to that old man.” Made me feel pretty good except the old man part. So I did a little calculating. Best I could figure, elk and deer combined, I had trailed around a thousand. I didn’t even count the bear. Have to be pretty stupid not to have learned something.

Started taking inventory of all the “stuff” I have in my office and notes on who should get what and where the other “stuff” should go. What do you do with 165 writing awards? Who in the world wants a mounted sheep head or a 10-pound bass or two bear rugs? But think of the fun I had with all those memories coming back to me.

Getting old means telling old stories to new ears. It means sitting and staring at the walls with stuff hanging on them and letting the memories flow back. I’m writing this at 1:30 in the morning and thinking of a day when the biggest elk I have ever seen walked within seven yards of me an I never got a shot at him. I think of my precious grand daughter sitting in my lap and drooling and babbling while I make up a story for her. I think of the warm, baby smell until she gets that look on her face and I know it is time to hand her to her mother for changing. I count the weeks until grandbaby number two is here.

I think of a bunch of us old farts (can I say that?) sitting around a fire or fireplace telling the old stories that all start with, “Remember the time…) That’s a really good part of getting old because most of us can’t remember the details so we can embellish.

I remember the old friends. A few weeks ago, Gene “Willis” Jordan called me out of the blue. I mentioned him in an article about the perfect lean-to some time back and somehow, someone sent him a copy of the column. He didn’t know I was alive and I didn’t know he was alive. We rodeoed together for many years and shared many a camp. We had a great visit. He still lives in the mountains of WY and has three of four knees full of grandbabies. We traded stories on them. Then my sometimes pretend sister from LA called. We had not talked in 20 years. She had been told I was dead. We cried hard for a few minutes. Bitter sweet but now good. She happened to bump into a mutual friend in a grocery store and he told her to call me. She fainted. Thought I had been dead for many years and I thought she was mad at me. These are good things about growing old. Things can sometimes be put to rights.

It is good to look forward to a family reunion this summer and a two-day visit with my sister in the next few weeks. Been away far too long. Lot’s of catching up to do. It is good to do a fish fry with the folks in the next week or so. All the old timers and some of the new timers-Sam, you need to come. Be good thinking on your part. The smell of fish frying and chickens roasting and kids running and playing in the yard…then you get to send them all home.

The house will be quiet then. Everything clean because everybody pitches in before they leave and we do it as we go. Maybe have the bull riding on the TV with the volume turned down. Don’t need anyone to tell me about that…been there, done that. Jeanne and I will just sit there and maybe snuggle. Might talk a little about the meal and the people and the conversation and I’ll glance around at the plaques and the mounted heads and dream about them a bit and smell the smell of my grandbaby on my clothes.

And I’ll think maybe getting old aint so bad. Meanwhile “Big Bird” Campbell has been catching a few fish on Old Hickory.
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Cutlines:

#1- Haven Louise Sloan is one of the great things about getting old.
#2- Big Bird probably got this one with dyno-mite.

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Constipation has ruined many a good day. Not as many as stupidity, though.