I started to respond to Tim in the thread about my Mom's deer, and it spiraled into this. Just thought I would share... My brothers and I drove my Mom crazy. I don't know how she did it. About the only time we weren't torturing each other was when we were hunting or fishing, so my Mom took us all the time. As a kid, my Mom wasn't allowed to go hunting. Women/girls were not allowed in hunting camp. My Grandpa wanted to take her, but he was told by his camp it was against the rules. As a result, my Grandpa would take tons of photos of the experience to share with my Mom (and her brothers) when he got home. (short side fact...my Mom always took tons of photos of our hunting and fishing trips. She has many photo albums at their house, all labeled by year, of our childhood. Many of the photos are hunting or fishing related. This is probably the reason why she did, and it led to me doing the same.) My Mom tells some pretty good stories of the anticipation of her Dad returning from hunting camp. They would stare out the window waiting to see if their Dad would return with a deer strapped to the car. It wasn't until my Mom was in her 20s that she got the chance to hunt. My Dad, who wasn't from a hunting or fishing family, began hunting after Vietnam after being introduced to it by some fellow soldiers. After his first couple years deer hunting, he decided to bring my Mom. I'm sure she brought it up constantly. My Dad, having not really participated in a classic deer camp, was annoyed by the other hunters. They gave him a lot of crap for bringing his wife. After a season of their badgering, he did the right thing...he bought a cabin "up north" and started their own camp. I spent countless hours at the cabin growing up, both hunting and fishing. We knew every Friday after school we were heading to the cabin for a weekend of hunting, unless told otherwise. I have two brothers (one older, one younger), and a younger sister. We are all within 6 years of age. Before we were old enough to stay at the cabin by ourselves, and we weren't old enough to hunt, my parents would take us a long...sort of. My Dad bought a full size van, and they would take turns hunting while the other stayed in the van with us. Those are some of my favorite memories as a kid. We sat in van parked back in the woods on federal land, coloring, playing games, listening to the radio, and eating snacks. We knew they sat in about 1 hour shifts, and we would stare out the windows waiting for the hunter to return. We then did shoot a deer, we would all get out to track it. Some times my Dad saw the deer go down or he already found it, and he would let us kids take up the trail. This was when I first learned to track deer. My Dad is an exceptional tracker. We used to always say, "if its dead, he'll find it". As we each got older, my parents would take us in the woods to hunt with them. We would build ground blinds with branches. This is when I first learned the importance of a good "background" when hunting. We would often sit on the ground next to one of my parents, low enough to hide our movement. I'm sure we screwed up many hunts for my parents, but they didn't care. If we wanted to go, they took us. Eventually, we all became old enough to hunt. We spent many hours hunting as a family, not just for deer, but grouse, pheasants, rabbits, squirrels, woodcock, quail, etc. My sister lost interest as she got older, but her boyfriend is a hunter and she "gets it". I could even see her hunting again eventually. My older brother doesn't hunt as much as he used to, but he still goes a couple times a year to spent time with family. The fall fishing pulls at him harder these days than hunting. We are all a little spread out now, except for my younger brother and I. We fish and hunt together almost weekly. Sometimes multiple times in a week. So that is the short version of how Vito became to be a hunter. I wouldn't change a minute of my upbringing, and I am thankful to my parents every chance I spend outdoors. It is not a hobby, it is part of who I am. A few of my Mom's most memorable bow kills. This buck didn't sport a big rack, but it was the heaviest deer she has killed. She also shot it on her birthday, November 2nd. She shot this buck exactly one year later, from the same stand. It was the #2 scoring typical taken by a woman with a bow in the state that year. This buck was part of a double by my parents. They shot bucks within 5 minutes of each, and about 150 yards apart. They were both chasing a doe. For some reason, I don't have the pic of them two together on my computer. I know I have the film pic somewhere.
Great story. I hope to take my daughter hunting some day. She's only 6 right now, but told me last week that she wants to see another deer head on the wall. :D I really hope she gets into it, but if not, I'll find other ways to spend time with her as she gets older.
Like the part about hour shifts in the van while other spouse hunts. Letting kids track is a good idea to introduce them to a part of hunting.
