RE: Deer Camp
I belong to a hunting club that was founded in the 50's. My grandfather was one of the original members. When he passed away in the early 70's my dad inherited his membership and started taking me. When I graduated from college in 82' and was no longer a part of his household I had to join on my own and pay my own dues. We've got about 50 dues paying members, although only about half that many actually hunt. The others simply enjoy the social aspects. For the ones that do hunt there's deer, turkey, ducks, doves, squirrels and here lately, even wild hogs. The hog thing is a new development as we didn't have any in this part of the state until recently.
Our camp has evolved over the years from a single main cabin to where now several members have built their own structures or moved mobile homes down there. We've got a lake and most have situated their buildings or trailers around it. So now, instead of everyone co-mingling in the main camphouse as they did when I was a kid, they've all kind of separated into their own smaller groups. I like the privacy of having my own cabin, but I also miss the way things were back in the old days when we all slept in one big bunk room and ate together in one dining room. I wish my son could experience the way it used to be. We had some real characters in our camp back then.
We still hire cooks to cook for us on weekends during deer season in the main cabin (which is now a metal building because the original cabin burned down), but now they only cook breakfast and lunch. For dinner everyone does their own thing. There's a certain group of guys I associate with and we'll usually grill out steaks, venison or porkchops or fry some fish or whatever for dinner.
I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to belong to this club and I hope my son can get as much enjoyment out of it as I have over the years. So far he loves it. Some of the guys are going down in a couple of weeks to blow up beaver dams and he's really looking forward to seeing that. So am I.