Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association
When I think about personal experiences over the past six decades and how they’ve formed the person I’ve become, they all share a common element: discovery; some of it originated with friends and some with family. But, the best moments of discovery came from people who took the time to pass on a certain skill or piece of knowledge.
When I was an emerging baseball pitcher in the early 60s, a friend of the family taught me the art of tossing a knuckle ball. It was a different kind of pitch: Nobody knew where that dancing ball was going – not the catcher, hitter or even I could predict its path. That’s the nature of a knuckle ball, but it sure was fun confounding everyone.
And, the English teachers in elementary school had a way of driving certain principles of our complicated language into our brains – some of which remains spot-on 60 years later. Here’s one: To show possession of any noun, add an apostrophe “s”, except if the noun is plural and ends in “s”, just add an apostrophe. That’s it, word for word. How it hurts to see that little apostrophe misplaced by today’s professionals.
However, it was our neighbors next door who took me fishing with them for the first time. Oh, how excited I was to learn how to use those archaic closed-faced reels. A few years later I would hitchhike regularly to Upper Straits Lake in Oakland County, where I would rent a rowboat from Bill Shaw. The only boat I’ve ever owned still takes me on adventures by means of arm-strong power and oars.
Now, with the great-grandkids leaving the big city to stay with me for a few days, the opportunity to impart a bit of outdoors wisdom to them is a responsibility worthy of doing it right. It seems so long ago – although only one year has passed – that I spent a few hours on a lake with my great-grandson in that same little boat.
However, this summer’s visit will include my great-grandson’s two younger twin sisters, and for the first time, they will be camping outdoors. As Americans are recreating less outside and have gone on a billion fewer outings in 2018 than they did only a decade ago, we are going to buck that ominous trend. So what if the adventure is in our backyard? To the youngsters it will be a rustic getaway far, far away from games that exercise only thumbs.
What makes it exciting for me is the idea of introducing the kids to the overflowing wildlife we have in our midst and sometimes take for granted.
A year ago, I was struck by one of the twin’s excited reaction as she noticed a cottontail rabbit, dashing away from the four-wheeler we were on together. I thought to myself that I would open the door to the wild world for them when the time was right.
Now, that time has come and camp preparations have already begun. We’ll be alone together under the stars amid the coyotes, turkeys and whitetail deer. A campfire, a tent, sleeping bags, hot dogs and marshmallows are sure to make an indelible mark on the impressionable minds. And, nobody knows where the experience may lead.
