Attribution: Marc St. Gil, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that in the keeper’s long life of excesses, nothing looms any more excessive than his involvement with Wisconsin’s traditional nine-day deer hunt which this year begins tomorrow morning at ——-a.m.
As a complete record would show—and the keeper is happy there isn’t one, Fridays before the hunt were totally dominated by preparation and the anticipation of the coming deer camp adventures. Over the years those deer camps have included everything from leaky tarpaper shacks to comfortable cabins with indoor plumbing.
The occupants of those camps have varied from an alcoholic uncle steeplejack to a black Chicago Army pal, to my dad and his friend Pete, to my sons and grandsons, and “The haunted house” crew where, as house owner and old friend John Lawton put it “a pack of assholes” had gathered to do no good.
From his first hunt as a boy in the midst of old timers, to his last hunt with eager grandsons, the keeper has such a store of memories that this day-before-the-hunt will not be long enough to unpack all of them. But he will try, perhaps sharing “some” of the details with Phyllis but not boring her with some of the others.
