Today’s the day. You’ll walk across the stage, and shake the principal’s hand, and we’ll eat all the seafood and laugh and cry and take a million pictures. This is the tipping point, the entry into adulthood. Everything is in front of you. But, if you’ll allow your dad a few minutes, I just want to press pause for a minute to reminisce about what’s behind us. I remember the steps up to Watson Clinic Pediatrics. I had been a father for 3 days. I didn’t understand car seats or copayments. Did you know there was a room for “well” kids? Not this guy. I’d say I was braving it…
-
-
Who Killed Waterfowling?
Does it seem like everyone is grumpy these days? Not enough ducks, not enough land, too many hunters – the list is longer than a goose gun in the 40’s. It felt like, maybe, it was time to lay out who, exactly, is to blame for the state of our waterfowling. Is it Duck Dynasty, and Duck Commander, and the entire Robertson crew, spreading waterfowling from the swamps and speakeasies of rural America into 10 million living rooms every Tuesday? Or is it Social Media, a medal-less competition to see which Instagram account can post the most dead ducks each season? Was it too many wannabe pro-staffers, stacking piles upon…
-
Dogs I Have Known
I’m not exactly sure how or when my infatuation with hunting dogs began. I came by this naturally, I suppose . . . My maternal grandfather was a quail hunting tour-de-force, almost always with a pointer or 3 leading the way. My dad raised beagles when we were very young, so gun dogs were abundant. There were always 2 or 3 in the kennels, until a litter came along. Toby and Max and Dutchess and Bear wandered through my adolescence with their tri-colored saddles and soulful howls. But somewhere, and I don’t remember the switch exactly, we ended up with a Brittany. Abracadabra was her name on paper, which we…
-
Waitin’
You had to wake him up 3 times just to get in the truck to head to the water. You bought him Pepsi, but it turns out he prefers Coke. You swing through McDonald’s, and he orders a chicken biscuit, but it’ll be 10 minutes before they’re ready. You talk him into a Sausage McMuffin and head down the road. At this point, you realize you really should’ve filled up the the truck night before. 10 minutes at the gas station, call it 15 after you track down an attendant to unlock the bathroom door. You pull into line at the boat ramp 9 boats deep. Any urgency usually put…
-
Keep & Release
Every podcast recording session starts out the same way: Emily, exasperated, looks at Nate and I and asks, “Do you guys have a ‘Keep’ and ‘Release’ for this week?” If you’ve never heard the show, a) consider yourself lucky and don’t click this link, and b) Keep and Release is the segment where we give a little shout-out to whatever the one thing is that we want to talk about this week in a positive light (Keep), and the one thing that irritated us or aggravated us in the previous week (Release). A release could be leaky waders or faulty spinning reels or lousy internet service or duck ID posts…
-
Why are we Fishing?
When I pulled up to the school, I was ready. The back of the truck had rods and reels rigged to go. I’d picked up earthworms from the local bait shop, and my buddy had given me a tip to a pretty solid bluegill bite. As his art teacher opened the door, Will hopped in the truck . . . We made normal small talk about how each other’s days were, lunch, pretty girls, the usual. We stopped for an Icee, and it wasn’t until we pulled up to the bank of the creek that he exclaimed . . . “Dad, are we going fishing? WHY?” Why? Why are we…
