Hunters have a lot to be thankful for this time of year

Published 1:21 am Saturday, November 24, 2018

The Thanksgiving holidays have been a traditional week of travel for Texans. Some settle just for going to grandma’s house. Others go for an extended stay at a deer lease somewhere around the state.

As I was coming home from a weekend hunt last Sunday, the highway was loaded with hunters headed the other direction. Some will be home Wednesday afternoon. Others are gone for the week.

Those who do come home were replaced by a second wave that had the truck parked Thursday morning and were out the door after the last piece of pumpkin pie was gone … if they did not wrap it in a paper towel and eat it on the road.

I have been a part of all three. I think maybe the best was the year that two Luby’s restaurant managers showed up Thanksgiving day with a feast from the restaurant. I am not sure it can get much better than that.

Those who do not hunt probably won’t understand why this is a good time for hunters to give thanks for the chance to hunt. Unless they have grown up around it, they will never really understand what it means. Actually, it means something different to everyone who hunts.

I know my reasons, and there are several of them. I grew up in a family that owned agricultural land and had friends whose families were in ranching. As more of us became urban dwellers, that connection disappeared. I found I could not escape the city any time I wanted, but I could while hunting.

To this day, I still look for reasons to sneak off to the barn or cow pens, I pick up trash in the pasture and am more than willing to help mend a fence or fix something else even if it means missing a hunt.

Then there are the people. I started hunting with my dad. We dove hunted and even though he passed away in 1983, no one can ever take away those memories. My dad was a great athlete in his youth, but by the time I was born those years were long gone. We could still hunt together and, like any kid, I wanted to be proud of my dad and I certainly was with his shooting ability.

I introduced my sons, Tristan and Thomas, to hunting, and we still hunt together as much as their life and work allows. Now my grandson, Connor, is going with us and hopefully in a few years he will start hunting, too.

I cannot tell you how many people I have met through hunting over the years. Some are landowners and their families, ranch hands, local business owners and of course other hunters. Some have remained friends, others may drift away for a while or forever. I was thinking the other day about a hunter I met in the 1970s and did not see him again for 40 years. The conversation immediately went back to that first hunt and easily transitioned into hunts we have been on since.

There are also the places. I have been lucky to have hunted from Dalhart to Ben Bolt, Jefferson to Langtry, and that is just in Texas. I have been on some pretty neat ranches, some that are historical and some that were just beautiful pieces of Texas.

There were times that just getting there took me through great parts of the state. I had to download an app of state historical markers to keep up with what I was seeing.

And while we don’t do it so much any more, there were some great places to eat. The old Brady Steakhouse just off the square has been replaced by a McDonald’s on the edge of town to keep us rolling down the highway. It is a trend that has been repeated across the state.

Like the restaurants of old, the face of hunting is changing. There are less of the old gang around and more new faces with new techniques and new goals. I am OK with that because it means there is a future to hunting. It means there is another generation that will have a connection to the land where they learn the importance of conservation, the need for rain, clean air and open spaces.