Sad day

[rubicon]

To me the best part of being a senior hunter is all the memories I created getting here but I just lost a best friendship I have had since childhood. My buddy was waiting for a heart transplant but it just didnt work out. Over some 40 years we never lost touch. he taught me to cross country and downhill ski, we snow shoed, hunted, fished, ran trap lines, dug ramps, built four wheel drive trucks, rode four wheelers, camped, canoed, kayaked, caved, worked together as officers in volunteer organizations together. We built and shared a hunting cabin and solved many world problems sitting on the cabin porch watching the stars and listening to the otes howl. My children and his are friends. This is such a loss to me but "MOOSE's" memories will never fade.

[Nulle]

One of the things we don't or care not to think about till it hits US.
One of my uncles was a Southern Quail hunting fool and I watched him grow older through the years and at last he was not able to follow the pointers and birds and I am sure that is what killed him. We need to reflect back on our lives and friends and remember those good times we were blessed with as Americans and live life to the fullest.
I am so very sorry for your loss and when the time is right take a young person into the outdoors with you.

[fabsroman]

Rubicon,

I am so sorry for your loss, but I am also really glad to hear that you had such a good friend. I wish I had a buddy like that to share time with. I have three best friends, and while they are my best friends because they are honorable, only two of them fish and none of them hunt. Plus, we are all so busy that we rarely ever get to see one another. Next year I think I am going to take a couple of new guys hunting with me. Hopefully, they will turn out to be the type of buddy that Moose was for you. It is just so hard to find a friend like Moose nowadays.

[Cal Sibley]

Hello rubicon,

Once you get past 65 you're fortunate to have access to a good friend. We should enjoy a good, lifelong friends company as much as possible because neither of us will be here forever. Look through an old high school year book occasionally. It's alarming how our numbers keep decreasing. I only started to really appreciate life when I realized how fleeting it is. Best wishes to all.

Cal - Montreal

[larryours]

Rubicon, just want to say how sorry I was to hear about your buddy "Moose", I know we all make memories each day with family and friends, a person don't realize until they're gone just how many memories you do have of them, it's human nature to take for granted that they will be with us, and then suddenly they are gone. I know how that is, I lost my Dad in 1989 of massive heart attack, he taught me about the outdoors, hunting, fishing, tracking and gun safety from an early age, I was planning on taking him bear hunting in Canada the following September, after I got back from a bear hunt in early September 1989, but a few weeks after I got back, he passed on. But remember those good memories of them, and as long as you live, they will live on in your heart and memories.

[BILLY D.]

do what i do. every year i celebrate the day that a special person in my life passed away by having a special dinner dedicated to them.

sit and think about special things we did together, the laughs we had, the sorrows we shared.

a loss can never be forgotten. so why bother trying, make it a good day and think of the positives.

top off the day with some good sippin' whisky and a moment of solitude go to bed and dream of all the good times you had together.

sorry for your loss.

[rubicon]

Billy, We do just as you said except we do it at the hunting cabin ole Moose shared with us. I had another good buddy that shared my hunting cabin that I lost a couple of years ago. When he got to the point he couldnt tramp around in the woods he took an old metal folding chair and set it on the edge of a clearing about 50 yards from the front door. He sat in that chair religiously every day during his last stay in camp deer hunting. Didnt kill any deer but said he made great friends with a chipmonk. Needless to say, I wont allow anybody to move that chair and we dont kill chipmonks at camp.
Larry, you probably knew Moose, he was a WV legistrator in the house of deligates. His name was O. David but lots of people called him OB

[BILLY D.]

hey rube

one little ironic thing to think about.

when you get a little older like me and there seems to be a lot of people that you are celebrating and remembering and it comes to mind that you are thinking about a lot of folks and the light bulb comes on and you think to yourself "dad gum, i'm still here, god must have a plan for me yet".

it is refreshing to the soul.

[rubicon]

Growing old aint for sissies Billy but growing old sure beats any alternatives.

[larryours]

Hey Rubicon, OB does sounds familiar but I just can't picture his face with the name , had he retired from House of Delegates ?
Which area did he represent ?

There's nothing like a good friend and hunting buddy, this past year I spend 3-4 days bow hunting earlier in October, and then just over a week in November bow hunting. my buddy who is about 10 years older than me, is retired, he doesn't bowhunt, but he still rifle hunts, he showed me several location which would be good for treestands since he's in and around his property thoughout the year, I kill one deer with a stone "chert" arrowhead that a friend of mine had knapped for me in the earlier part, I asked him "Wonder how long it's been since someone has killed a deer with a chert arrowhead ? Have you ever heard
of anyone recently killing a deer with a knapped arrowhead in this area ?" He looked at me and grinned and said, "Probably not since the *#@*+ Indians, and then laugh. I boiled out the skull of that buck, and made a plauque and put the full arrow on it. It now graces his hunting camp over the door on the inside.
Then on the week before rifle season I tagged out on the two remaining archery tags, and when I hunted till dark, he had diner and a mixed drink waiting, when I came in, he loves his camp as much as I do, really he's just like family, he would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, we would sit up at night and have some tomato juice & beer, and talk about everything, members of his family would come up and visit, actually he stayed at camp from a few days before I arrived for bowhunting, then other friends and family came in to deer hunt and he stay until
1st of January only going home for Christmas a few days, him and his wife and children and grandchildren held their Thanksgiving Diner at his hunting camp..
When I was packing to come home and back to work, we shook hands and his eyes were moisting up, because you never know when this could be our last day on this old Earth, I'll probably go out for a few days in Spring for Spring Gobbler, and a weekend or two during the summer, a few days early bow hunting, but that one full week in November when we are at camp when I'm bowhunting, its like coming home, I told my wife, thats my Second home, if something would happen to Lee, It would never be the same, he's one hellova good friend, and THAT"S WHAT MEMORIES ARE MADE OF: GOOD FRIENDS, FAMILY, & TIME !

[rubicon]

Put a price on a story like that! And I find the older I get the more I appreciate the simple things. Larry, I will b-mail you

[larryours]

Rubicon, I know what your saying, I use to think when I was young, I had to kill something to be hunting, nowdays, being older, just being out in the woods bowhunting, fishing or camping, I'm relaxed and enjoy myself. I hunt with a recurve, I'm not a trophy hunter, every game animal I take with my recurve is a trophy to me, I kid my two sons that they will have to put up their "training wheels"----- componds and hunt my way. They kid me back say Dad, if we have to hunt with stick and strings and rocks we wouldn't kill anything, Ha. ha. They both are gradually shooting a recurve on the side, I think they are being to see where their "Old Man" is coming from. It seems each year I enjoy myself even more when I'm hunting and making memories, I'm sure one of these days I won't be able to climb a tree, or hunt and my memories will have to do me, but til then I want to make as many as I can, *(Don't even want to think about that time)
Good luck and pack away those memories !

[Nulle]

Well old fellas for once I am speechless = you guys have said it all.

[Contender]

I know that we are supposed to be men but I think it is important to tell your friends and loved ones what they mean to you while they are still around to talk to. Give them a hug and tell them you love them. They will probably be shocked and then hug you back and tell you that they love you too. Now ain't that a different attitude for rough and gnarly old men?