Once in The Stilly Night

Once in The Stilly Night

It plum tickled his perversity to jist think ’bout chasin’ rarecoons. A classic from the November, 1935, issue of Field & Stream. Dud Dean held the empty frying pan over the glowing coals of our little fire. The fat caught, flared and burned out. After that burst...
Nervous Water

Nervous Water

A father and son are finally reunited, on a secluded lake high in the Colorado Rockies. On a clear June morning, I took my father bass fishing into the Colorado Rocky Mountains. I had not seen or spoken to him in ten years. We ate an early breakfast at a truck stop on...
A Collector’s Guide to Parker Shotguns

A Collector’s Guide to Parker Shotguns

I guess I should tell you up front that I have some misgivings about this column. Not because it’s bad stuff, but because I have a lot of friends who may not be too happy about it. You see, I make an annual pilgrimage to the Southern Side-by-Side Championship in...
Shotguns Across the Pond

Shotguns Across the Pond

At one time, controversy raged over who made the finest guns. Americans pointed to Parker, L. C. Smith, Fox, Ithaca, Lefever and late-to-the-party Winchester.  British gentleman would talk James Purdey, Holland & Holland, Henry Atkin, Grant, Lang, Westley Richards...
The Day I Went to Audley House

The Day I Went to Audley House

We were young, starry-eyed thirty somethings who found ourselves playing explorer in the Mayfair District of London some 35 years ago.  We were there on a work-related trip, but we had some free time, so my wife and I and a friend decided to see some sights. We were...
Papa’s Cuba: Hemingway’s Home Away from Home

Papa’s Cuba: Hemingway’s Home Away from Home

Cuba offers a party atmosphere: sunshine, sparkling seas and miles of white sand. It also offers some of the best cocktails and cigars on Earth. But as anyone knows who visits here, when it comes to attractions, its people are its greatest stock in trade. Cubans are...
Winchester Lofts

Winchester Lofts

In my late teens, the Connecticut drinking age was a youthful 18 years of age. As a result, my buddies and I spent time knocking around in the closest city, which was New Haven. Sometimes we hit a place called the Brewery that sold 130-something different types of...