The Boy crunched his way through the deep, brown leaves, pulling aside small limbs and letting them flip back. He picked up a stick and poked here and there.
“I’m looking for snakes,” he said.
I told him they wouldn’t be moving much since the night temperatures had been in the low 30s and it wasn’t much warmer than that now.
“It doesn’t hurt to look,” he said, and I agreed it did not.
“What sound do you make to call a snake?” he asked.
I said, if there was such a sound, I didn’t want to know about it. He took this under advisement, then began picking up hickory nuts as he found them. He gathered a small pile, then pulled off his coat. He put the snake-poking stick in his left hand, rested it on his left shoulder, then tossed a hickory nut into the air and hit it with a quick, sharp swing. He had a snappy left-handed cut that looked just like Ted Williams, if Williams were a 5-year-old trying to toss and hit hickory nuts with a snake-poking stick while wearing rubber boots. He did this for a while for about a .350 average. After he missed three in a row, he wrapped the stick-bat around a gum tree with a tremendous crack, threw down the remainder and asked when we were going to find some squirrels.
“Probably not anytime soon,” I allowed.
“I want to go deer hunting,” he said.
“Hunt one up,” I said. “If you spot one, point him out and I’ll shoot him.”
“Can we get him mounted and put him in my room if we do?” he asked.
I told him if we killed a deer under the present circumstances, I’d definitely follow through with the taxidermy.
“Good, but just whisper,” he said. “Deer don’t like it when you’re too noisy.”
Kevin Tate is the weekend edition editor for the Daily Journal.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
