Did You Ever Create a Monster
by Randal R. Huff
All my life I have heard the statement of creating monsters and finally I understand what that actually means. My maternal grandfather lost his only son back near the turn of the century to Influenza. That 1919 world pandemic took his four year old son away forever. He later had two daughters. The oldest married early at 15 and proceeded to have five healthy wonderful daughters. Grandpa’s youngest daughter, my mom had two children, me and my brother Tom. By the time we came along grandpa had long been retired from farming and us two boys seemed to fill the void he had lost so many years earlier; when his "Best Little Buddy in the World was taken away."
Grandpa loaded us up and started doing all he could to turn us into "Boys". We had sling shots, cane poles, marble bags, and never ending buckets and jars to keep all manner of critters in. We spent many and hour following him in his garden, playing in his blacksmith shop "tinkering" or tramping off to some creek. Not only was he Grandpa he was our buddy too!
I can never forget him making me a crossbow when I was way too young to possess such a thing. Never the less he taught me how to shoot it and I got pretty good. One day we had a Show and Tell at school and of all things what did I take to school? You guessed it…..I took that crossbow.
Well not to get ahead of the story it was 1960. I was ten years old and at the little country school, I suppose it was not unusual for a child to bring such a thing to school back then. Oh, I was supervised, Mr. I.P. Friedman the Principal was aware of the medieval weapon and was anxious for the other students to seen it in action. He gave a big talk about the Crusades and how weapons like this were used to defend castles and fight battles. Grandpa had made the bow out of a heavy piece of hickory and it was quite strong. He had fashioned my arrow out of a straight piece of oak and affixed a metal broad head to it with copper wire. Quite heavy for an arrow, but devastating to whatever it hit. In his wisdom Grandpa had made two notches on the string for adjusting the power of the bow. The first notch was the weakest setting, one that a ten year old boy could barely cock. So with all the kids from the classrooms present I assembled the crossbow and prepared to make my shot. Mr. Friedman kept everyone behind me; "Plunk" I shot the arrow about fifty feet. That’s all the power it had in the first notch. Several boys took off running to get the arrow and return it to me. I looked at Mr. Friedman and said, "It’ll shoot farther in the second notch but I can’t put it there." Well that’s all it took for Mr. Friedman to strain his gut and finally get the bow string into the second more powerful notch, cocked and ready to fire. Big mistake! Now a ten year old boy is armed with a 175lb crossbow, standing near several hundred other children. I aimed high into the air and pulled the trigger. "Whoosheee" went the arrow and instantiously Mr. Friedman said "Oh my God"….."Oh my God"! The arrow disappeared from sight momentarily but soon reappeared in its eventual return to earth. Landing about fifty feet from children playing about 300-400 yards away. Mr. Friedman locked my crossbow up! At the end of the day I was allowed to take the bow home and the next day I was allowed to take the arrow home. Per Mr. Friedman, I was never, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVVERRRR to bring anything like this to show and tell again!
Years later I married and eventually we had our only child, a daughter. My limited experience of childhood games and toys was centered around "boy stuff". Tramping through my dads woods, playing along the river, etc. Therefore, I’ve often been accused of trying to turn my girl into a boy. I guess I just didn’t know any better.
You know something? Girls can become pretty good buddies! Thus in my wife and my mothers eyes, I started creating my "Monster." My daughter never ceases to amaze me with her independent style at approaching life’s mishaps that come at her. I believe this stems from her childhood of being with Dad and schooling around me as "I tried to turn her into a boy". Don’t blame me she’s the one that wanted to take Karate! On a side bar note: It’s hard to set in the wings and watch you cheerleader daughter put on boxing gloves and enter a ring with boys and men bigger then her. Through her life I have seen her tackle many obstacles. One which comes to mind is at 16 she took the steering column out of her pickup truck to fix a broken ignition, and fixed it. Girls can be feminine and tuff at the same time….did you know that?
She is a deadly shot with a rifle, shotgun or pistol. Knows how to maintain them and can reload her own ammunition. She loves to fish and beats me all the time at it. So…..more girls need a little Tomboy education as they grow up, is my thought.
As proof of this conjecture of mine, I took my daughter on her first deer hunt when she was 13. However, she had not completed the hunter education program so she could only go as an observer. I remember her being all excited as we prepared for our trip to "Paddy Creek Wilderness" near Licking, Missouri. She started getting her goodies together weeks before our trip. One thing she paid a lot of attention to was a hunting tape I had by the famous outdoorsman Ben Lee. In this tape there was instruction on "calling deer". Well I for one had never put much stock into calling deer but I left her alone to her own demise on this subject.
She got a grunt call and started practicing as the Lee tape had instructed. I made fun of her but she kept at it and said "dad I’m gonna call us up a big one".
During the week before opening weekend she and I made some 8 foot ladder stands and started packing the truck. One might think we were taking too much but that was OK. The wife got interested and decided she was going to go with us. So now I got two women going hunting. We got busy and made another 8 foot ladder stand for mom. Her plan was to drive down Friday night after she got off work and meet us at camp.
On the Thursday before opening weekend we took off to the woods. Arriving at the trail camp at Paddy Creek we soon set up camp and prepared for the weekend in the woods. Setting up the tent, gathering wood, and making things "homey". Late that afternoon, I got out the TOPO map and gave Ginger her first lesson on map reading and how to use a compass. I showed her on the map a location that I had scouted and hunted in the past. It was about a mile from our camp, deep into Paddy Creek Wilderness.
"Kid you ready to tackle getting our stands up?" Her grin and positive attitude…."Let’s do it." The idea of dragging a ladder stand this long a distance may seem bigger then what it actually is. Trust me; it is not difficult if you take your time. My stand design allows for one to make a harness which allows the stands seat area to lie flat on ones back while you drag the legs of the ladder stand behind you as you walk, leaving your arms free. It sort of works like the ole western movie shots, where you see a Indian pony with two poles attached on each side dragging their belongings. Anyway, it works pretty well for me! Besides that, this was a good deer stand before the invention of all the modern stands that are shown today in various hunting catalogs. Plus, it was very cheap to build.
With map and compass in hand we took off down the trail to a point where I gave the compass to Ginger and said "Ok, due west should get us to our spot." About a half a mile into the woods we came to the "Funnel and adjoining ridge lines I had picked for us." We laid our stands down and I started showing her various deer sign that was in this area, scrapes, and other points of interest, fields of fire, etc.
To the south of us lay a steep ¼ mile grade and Little Paddy Creek Campground. I said, if we get a deer we can drag it downhill and across Little Paddy without much difficulty. "Won’t that water be cold, Dad?" Half jokingly I said, "We’ll have to find a spot to cross or pull our pants and shoes off and wade it." Little Paddy was only about 2 feet deep and 20-25 feet wide in this area. I had taken deer down this slope in years past and knew it was the easiest method. Once you get to the edge of the creek, just throw the deer’s pull rope across the river and then find a good spot and cross yourself. Plus it gives a little adventure to the hunt…….and a memory……"Always work on Memories."
We set up our stands and returned to camp. The next morning we took my wife’s stand in to our spot.
My wife arrived without incident and we enjoyed the evening. Before supper we made the five mile back road trip to Paddy Creek Campground and left one vehicle there in case we would need it the next day. Upon returning, I prepared a good supper of "foil packs", and we ate our fill before turning in for the night. It was hard to get sleep as we talked too late and thoughts of a big buck kept coming up. Ginger recounted how we had set the stands up on three trees close to each other where we could cover a 360 degree area. "I’ll be in the middle calling for you and dad both." We were all excited about the coming day; I don’t think any of us got much sleep that night.
4:00am came pretty early. My wife was not too happy at this early rising, but the coffee and doughnuts got her blood going. Soon we were ready to take to the woods. Why so early she exclaimed. Taking the lead, Ginger explained to her mother what I had told her. Well Mom it’s like this, we get up early and take our time walking to our stands and don’t work up a sweat, which would cause us to get cold quicker. Second, we will be in our stands in the middle of the woods an hour before other hunters start to the woods. They will all probably hunt near their camp or only come into the woods a short distance. Guess what Mom? Those hunters will scare the deer right towards us. Mom was impressed, I beamed with pride………….she did listen to her ole Pop after all.
Before long we had reached the point where we had to leave the trail. "Dad, these woods look a lot different at night. I don’t see anything familiar." "Ok, look at your compass." "Here is the rock and fallen tree where we turned yesterday right?" "Set your compass for due West….you lead the way kiddo….trust the compass." A few hundred yards….."Dad you do this, I don’t see anything that looks right." "You are fine…..follow the compass." We continued on and soon her flashlight found some orange trail tape that we had hung in some trees near our stands. The look on her face said it all, "I did it!" Of course I knew you could do it! I bragged on her for finding our stands in the dark……….."Building Memories."
Soon we were in our stands, awaiting the birth of a new day in the woods. This is one of my favorite times outdoors. Be it deer or turkey season, or squirrel hunting…..that time of day when darkness slowly turns to light. Fog rising from the damp forest floor and the rustle of animal life as things around you start to awaken before you eyes. A woodpecker streaks past and starts "hammering" for breakfast. Your heart races as a squirrel dances around you and for that fleeting moment you think it’s a deer or turkey.
Suddenly a breeze swirls through and chills me a bit as I look over at Ginger and she is preparing to start calling a deer. It’s still pretty dark and you can’t see over 50 feet in the woods. Besides that, it’s not legal time to start hunting. Honestly, I feel it is useless and she will probably scare off any deer that might be in the area. I motioned for her not to start her "grunting", and she complies. Soon we start hearing the noise of other hunter’s vehicles, pots and pans, camp noise, etc. It’s amazing to me how far noise can travel.
Soon the time is right, I looked over at her and could tell she wanted to "do her thing", so I nodded and she started her "grunting". You are not going to believe this, within a few minutes I could hear what I thought was a deer coming towards us. A big snap and crack as the deer apparently stepped on some fallen limb and loose rocks. Sure enough, a nice buck was about 150 yards away coming in our direction. I motioned to my wife that a deer was coming. We had agreed that if a deer came by she would take the first shot and I would back her up. I put the crosshairs on the deer and slowly followed it through the woods wondering why in the world she was not shooting. Finally, at the last second before he disappeared I took the shot. He fell in his tracks. I looked at my wife and said "Vic why didn’t you shoot?" "It was a bad angle and too close to Ginger." I took a second look and agreed she had made a sound decision. No deer or any game is worth an unsafe shot. As a first time hunter, I was proud of Mom too for her wise choice in handling a firearm. We had been to the range many times but this too proved she had paid attention to me and my constant reminders about safety.
We all went over and admired our success. Ginger you convinced me that "grunting a deer is possible". "I’m hooked you can call a deer for me anytime."
I then proceeded to show the girls how to field dress a deer. The next move was to drag it back to the truck. We started down the steep trail to Paddy Creek. It was so steep that sometimes the deer would slide in front of me as I held the rope and no need to drag it. Which was nice? The girls were quite a good distance in front of me. When I got to the creek they had both taken off their pants, boots and sox. Bundled them up and waded across the creek. I guess this was their plan before I got in sight, as when I got to the bank they were across from me sitting on a big rock and putting on their boots. I tossed them the end of the rope and they pulled our deer across the creek. I laughed at them and said "I was just kidding with you guys about wading across". "Why didn’t you cross up there where the stepping stones are?" They looked at where I was pointing and just laughed too……"well we did it…we waded Paddy Creek in November!" I crossed upstream on the rocks and then loaded the deer in the truck. Another successful family memory was created.
Today, I have two granddaughters ages 7 and 8. Guess what? They both love to shoot BB’s at tin cans. Love to make birdhouses with "Pappy". Ride 4 wheelers. Ride motorcycles. Make things together. Of course they love to fish. The oldest one already has a stuffed squirrel on the mantel, which she shot with her dad. Therefore, I can only conclude from my 30 plus years of teaching girls "boy stuff", girls can make pretty good buddies.
Oh, when they get to their teen years I will probably have to take a back seat to some of the things that draws a child away. However, with the basic bridges built in youth, they still have a common ground and pathway back to…………being a buddy…..even if they are "girls."
I hope you enjoyed my attempt are sharing some of the treasured stories life has given me. My passing wish to you is always strive to be safe. Enjoy the outdoors when you can. Hit life running and take a child under your wing. You get what you give, so go out there and…………Build Some Memories.