TBT - Throw Back Thursday
Recently several people have mentioned that I haven't blogged much anymore! Believe me, I've had plenty moments that are blog worthy lately - I just haven't had the time. So, today I'm going to blog something that I wrote many years ago - like....maybe 9-10 years ago! I know - ancient right?
I'm working the Shop today and a gentleman was in telling me a "hunting" story. He didn't buy anything but he kept me entertained with his stories! Once he was gone and the visions of dead deer in the woods was stuck in my head I started to reminisce about the days when Nic, my son, first started hunting. And then I thought about this piece that I wrote many moon ago after one such hunting trip.
Don't know why I wrote it - it was in the Pre-Facebook, Pre-blog, Neanderthal error - but I was inspired and I did and so here it is for your TBT pleasure! It's called NO BIG DEAL! Enjoy!
No Big Deal
My son is a hunter.
We don’t know why he likes to hunt or how he even caught this
fever. My husband wasn’t a hunter and
did not grow up in a hunting family. In
fact, his family was much opposed to the idea since his uncle was killed in a hunting
accident. Then, enter, Nic who likes to
hunt. So, my husband decides that there
is no way that he is sending his son (who inherited the clutz gene from me)
into the woods alone with a weapon. So, now, my husband also is a hunter!
They bragged last night as they were getting ready for the
hunt about how they were the men folk going out to get the meat for the
family. I asked them if they’d shoot a
cow this time instead of a deer as I don’t much have a taste for Venison. They laughed - I was serious.
The hours passed and it soon became dark. The phone rings. It is Nic.
He speaks with half excitement, half disappointment. “Mom, I got a deer, but she ran away and we
can’t find her – we’re looking and have called friends to come help so we won’t
be home for a while.” A few moments
later Nic’s uncle Jerold called to talk to him.
When I told him of the situation he and his wife decided to join the
forest search party and headed out for the woods with flashlights in tow.
They had just gotten home when I arrived from church. Half frozen and nearly starved to death, my
Hunter Husband says to me – you’ll have to take him out in the morning to look
for the deer! What!!!??? You’ve got to be kidding me!. How did I suddenly become involved in this? There was no asking, no pleading just the
command of what needed to be done. I
kept asking questions of who, how, what and why and the biggest question of all
was – “How do you expect me to get our 4 year old daughter up at 6:45, drive
him out there, possibly bring back a dead deer (which by the way, I have a real
thing about dead animals) and be at work by 9:00 and Nic to school at a decent
time? No one really took much time
answering my questions because they could see the darts flying form my eyes and
the steady stream of steam fuming from my ears. They just looked at me and
said, “It’s really not a big deal”.
Once in bed, I again began to spout off about my
dissatisfaction with being involved in this endeavor. Then, I was informed, once again, that it
really wasn’t a big deal and I was making more out of it than it was. “So, how in the world do you expect me and
Nic and Hannah, to hang up a dead deer if we do in fact find it?”, I asked my
confident husband. “You’ll figure it
out, he said”! Yeah, right and why don’t
I just bring it home and butcher it too all before 9 a.m.!! My husband didn’t bother saying good bye to
me that morning before he left for work, but he did yell downstairs to inform
me that the dog had puked in the floor!
Now, wait a minute, if it really isn’t such a big deal to go out into
the woods and handle a dead animal then it really shouldn’t be such a big deal
to clean up a small puddle of doggie phlegm should it? I’m really kicking myself for not shouting
back upstairs, “Clean it up – it’s not a big deal”!
I was only expected to take Nic out and then go back and get
him after the deer was found, dragged to the jeep and gutted. But, Hannah, our 4 year old, was so excited
and I felt bad about not being a more supportive mom that I bundled her and I
up and at the first crack of daylight we headed out with Nic to the woods
behind a friends home (or the crime scene as I like to refer to it). I was hoping we’d easily come upon the
chalked outline of the animal in question, load her into the jeep and head back
home for a quick cup of hot cocoa before it was time to go to work. But no such luck. Nic gets Hannah on the look out for the
“blood trail”. Just the words – “blood
trail” is enough to make my stomach churn but my 4 year old daughter suddenly
became part hound. If she had a tail it
would have been wagging with excitement.
She was on that like a fly to garbage.
And good at it she was. After
about ½ hour searching and searching she and Nic find a “blood trail” in the cornfield. I’m thinking, how in the heck are we supposed
to drag a dead deer out of a very dense cornfield? My son assures me that he’ll just drag her
out! Yeah, right, oh yeah, of course, No
big deal! I didn’t go into the
cornfield because I was determined to find this poor dead deer lying in plain
sight in front of the jeep! Pretty soon
I cannot hear or see my oldest and youngest offspring (the middle child had
morning practice or he would have been there too). I call Nic on the cell phone. Hannah was sniffing her way through an
unbelievable blood trail they had found deep in the corn field and they just
knew they’d find this dead deer (the victim) soon. Finally at 8:26 I inform my son via cell
phone that I have to be to work in ½ hour and will need to leave soon. He is nice and asks for about 5 more
minutes. I am feeling bad that I didn’t
go into the cornfield now so that I can rescue my most likely frozen and
starved preschooler and not have to take Nic away from his “blood trail”. Pretty soon they come out, he with a very
discouraged look, she with snot streaming all the way down her face but still a
look of exuberance I will never forget.
As I watched them emerge from the corn field I couldn’t help but say out
loud – here they come – The children of the corn! Wasn’t that a movie once?
He drove us back to our van and he headed back to the
cornfield for another look. This is when
the adorable little snot nosed girl who was her brothers right hand search
assistant turned into the child from h – e double hockey sticks. She whined and cried the whole way home
complaining how cold she was and how she wanted to stay with Nicky! I let her know we had only 5 minutes to change
our clothes and get to day care/work and that I would need her full cooperation.
I might as well have been speaking directly to the dead deer. I’m going full
speed ahead at home pulling her icy cold toes from her wet socks and
shoes. She is screaming that she hates
the jeans I picked out, she doesn’t want to wear those shoes and I hurt her
foot when I put her shoe on. I think her
head even spun around – I’m not sure because I was screaming myself and dealing
with a “blood trail” of my own in the bathroom!
We throw on coats that Hannah of course, does not want to
wear and race to the church – you know the place of peace, the home of the
Lord, where I work and Hannah goes to school.
My mother in law is waiting on me to help count the church offering. I tell her my tale of woe. None of which she finds humorous - just a
look of concern that she might see her sons name in headlines soon.
I get a
call from a very disappointed Nic around 9:45.
He still can’t find the deer and realizes he needs to get to
school. My mother in law, bless her
heart, offers to drive him to school. I
drive out to the friend’s farm and follow my son back because he is not suppose
to be legally driving yet. Grandma is
there to meet us at home. Nic seems to
think he has time for coffee and some t.v. – No big deal!. I started screaming again for him to get in
the shower. I throw some food items in a
bag for my lunch and headed back to the church – the place of peace, after I called the school to say that Nic is
running late and praying they don’t ask me why.
They didn’t. My husband will rush
home from work to comb the corn field for the “victim” after work since Nic has
basketball practice. I hope he finds her
this time - if not maybe he’ll take my advice and shoot a cow next time – they
don’t run fast or far. In any event,
it’s really no big deal!
