RE: Excitement-better now or when you were a kid
For me, the best times will always be when I was young. Deer hunting was a family adventure. My Dad, while he was always there for us, was "larger than life" to me and somewhat difficult to talk to. Really "old school", if you know what I mean. When deer season rolled around, however, everything changed. I knew that "WE" were going hunting! It was that "WE" that made me look forward to deer hunting more than Christmas.
In that week or two before the Missouri opener, I watched my Dad go through a change from that "seemingly" unapproachable, no-nonsense, hard line farmer into someone who seemed to be thinking the way I did. "I can't wait! Let's go!! He seemed to have an almost adolescent air of excitement about him. The preparation, the plans, the talks and the shared daydreams. Getting up at some God-awful hour to make the drive to Van Buren to set up camp. MyDad driving and my brother Roger and myself stuffed into the cab of the truck. My older brother Stan met us there.
My Dad died in 1989, and my brother Roger died just last year. To my knowledge, my Dad never did kill a deer. That never dampened his spirits, though, nor did it ever stop him from expecting to take a "monster" next year. I never managed to kill one growing up either. I didn't kill my first deer until I was 20. Still, my best times "deer huning" will always be those when my Dad, my brothers and myself were all together, sitting around the campfire and dreaming of what might happen tomorrow.
I'd give anything to be able to see Dad just one more time, just like anyone would I suppose. Of all the things I would say to him, the first and most important to me would be "Thank you. Thank you for everything".