When the old house was occupied, its splintering walls were stout, its diminutive shelter a fortress of good spirits, its heartwood hale and its ambiance light with ale. Way long ago now, in the antediluvian and simplistic age in which I knew boyhood, circa. 1954,...
Our quest: the old workhorse of the Parker stable, the gun that, more than any other, validated the company catchphrase, “The Old Reliable.” For it was that of a young man, and I am old, and I have seen first-hand the burnishment of many golden years upon a dream that...
He confided the happy little story that closed the 50 years between us as gently as nightfall closes day, that filled my eyes and made me smile. I’ve an idea it might foster a similar reminiscence for you. Little, whimsical outdoor gladdenings come along now and then...
“In every journey the road will bend. Who can know how the story will wend? To every beginning, there must come an end.” Cliché? Maybe, but profoundly, as inescapable truths that bracket the birth-to-death limits of our being. In the between time, there is...
“Wouldn’t it be great?” Kjos said again, his blood up, completely dismissing the ducks, “To have a permanent puppy, to have first love over and over again?” The sun slept in that years-ago Utah morning over the Salt Lake marshes. Where Kjos and I were guests in an...
I thank God most weekdays, and sometimes twice on Sunday, that there’s not a Trout Angler’s Sportsman Society. That, in modern matter, the fine art of fly fishing for species Salmo continues quietly and foremostly a gentleman’s endeavor, largely...
All grown up and reputable now, it’s time to be proper, to forget about catchin’ carp and all those boyhood memories, back when a Zero bar cost a nickel. I wish I wasn’t so sophisticated as I am, so I could just haul off in the daylight and find me a...
All his life he’d wanted such a bird dog, and finally he was getting one, though problem was, he could only have half of him and dang if he could decide which half he wanted. Two old friends, been longer together than shoe leather, out huntin’: The morning...
I’ve always had a few BB guns around the house, but now there’s a whole lot more, and I’m hungrily riding happy trails looking for the rest. I suppose if you’re going to revert to childhood, you might as well just get on with it, whole hog and all the daisies. My...
The most difficult part of nurturing a great dog is keeping yourself straight. I think of the dogs I have loved. Bird dogs. Yours and mine. I think of the ways I have loved them. This time, aside loyalty and devotion—almost a given within kind and understanding...
