Happy Thanksgiving! Carrying on a long-standing tradition...

Since I was 12, maybe 13, I have spent Thanksgiving with my Dad, my cousin, and my Uncle out in the deer woods.  Our Thanksgiving meal?  Cold ham sandwiches.  This was 38 years ago...

As time went on, things changed a bit - like you could shoot a doe versus buck only; we would come in for lunch at my Uncle's place, take naps and then head back out that evening.  What didn't change was that we were always hunting deer on Thanksgiving. 

Old Man Time marches on.  Marriages, kids, loss of hunting properties and finding new ones, and eventually old age itself made it all but impossible for our fathers to join us in the woods.  We would still get together, tell hunting stories (aka lies from faded memories), and have a toast of Schnapps, bourbon, Scotch, and / or beer.  Sometimes we would break out deer salami and even sometimes we never made it to the woods before it was time for lunch.  Zero regrets.  All happy memories.

What I don't remember was my mother or my aunt ever getting "upset" that we were not around for Thanksgiving on the actual day.  They were okay with us out doing what we loved - hunting with our family... a tradition that I have passed on to my kids.

We lost my father this past March at age 84.  He hadn't been in the deer woods in probably 10 years but we would always meet in his barn for a toast on Thanksgiving morning and if we got lucky enough to harvest a deer, we would stop by his house for a celebration and to let him check out the deer and hear our stories.  I'm sure he was living his hunting vicariously through us.  

This morning, Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024, we met in Dad's barn.  We poured a shot and toasted the hunting legacy we've been fortunate enough to be a part of.  Miss you Dad.  Love you Always.




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