The Cook Shack Question

Gabby at the cook shack had this one and I thought it was worth reviving for a second glance see what you think. How many do you remember ?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall. Real ice boxes.Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, NOT the ones you were told about ! Your ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6 Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines8. Newsreels before the movie9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young.
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older.
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt !

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along !!

Especially to all your really OLD friends....

Back In The Saddle Writing Again

I'm back in the saddle writing again as I think I have the accident insurance company going my way now and I have the grandson's getting ready for hunting season but as for my stands I've decided to leave them where they are this year and give it another go in the same place cause I was told by a good ole boy that where I'm hunting is exactly where he has seen a really big buck running to as an escape route when hunting season begins every year and besides that there's plenty of large acorn trees around the section of woods I'll be hunting that my grandson's and I can use as cover with help from my camouflage material and the brush which should be good practice for them on masking their scent. I spent the weekend with my family members who came up from Alabama and drank homemade muscadine wine while playing volleyball and cooking out which was really surprising cause I didn't think I could still get around on the court any more(but I can,and did). So now I've been sitting here at my computer since 6:00p.m. reading post,writing comments and sending e-mails to a few of the group and finding some new sites one of which I've added to my links which some of you may like to check out. His site is at http://thetroutzone.blogspot.com/ and he writes about his travels to various places trout fishing. He lives in my neighboring town and we are planning either a creek wading fishing trip or a float trip for smallmouth and largemouth bass then possibly try some of the streams around home which I'm told has some pretty good trout fishing in also. Anyway check his site out when you get time and give him a great welcome to our outdoor society group.

Memories On Hold

Okay my writing is alittle slow now days and with deer season coming upon me and two grandsons who wants me to take them hunting this year and stands that need moving around I just might have to put my writings on hold for awhile, but don't worry about me cause somewhere in all this camotion I try to find time to keep everybody updated and visit as many of you as I can. For now though this will probably be the last writing I do for awhile till things slow down for me. Everyone stay safe out there this yearand have a great year hunting. Oh yeah I almost forgot if I can download it from the newspaper I'll post my truck which made front page in our little town paper.Yes I was in an accident Friday morning and luckily I'm alright but my truck is gone and right now I'm waiting to see what his insurance is going to do about it. Right now they gave me a 2007 silverado to drive till they settle with me. My son-in-law was also in the truck with me and he to is alright we were both checked out at the hospital and released.You may want to enlarge the article if you want to read it.

Unloaded Guns-- Just a Memory

This was so many years ago I can't remember the year, however I was still young at heart and full of hunting ideas by the time hunting season came along that year. A good friend of mine ( Mike Matthews ) and I decided to go to a cabin I had access to in Manchester, Tennessee. We left out for the cabin on Friday afternoon and I described the 400 acre farm as best I could to Mike as we traveled. Mike took everything in except the part where I told him to load his gun as soon as we got into the field. As luck would have it we jumped two big bucks out of the creek bed as we drove back to the cabin in the middle of the farm. These two bucks ran across the road in front of us went across and over the hillside before either of us could get out and load our guns for a shot. We followed the bucks carefully over the top of the ridge hoping for a shot at at least one of the bucks but they had both eluded us that evening. We made it to the cabin, had supper, stoked the wood stove for the night and went fast asleep with hopes of taking a buck the next morning. Before daylight Mike and I got up and discussed where we were both going to hunt. Mike decided to hunt the same area as the two bucks where in the evening before and I decided to hunt behind the cabin up on the ridge top. By the time we were ready to leave the cabin we had 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and flurries still coming down. The ridge top I was going to hunt was so steep I had to pull myself up the hill by the barbed wire fence at the property line. Once I reached the top I sat down by a large oak tree and waited for about 2 hours before deciding to give my grunt call a try.With just three grunts of my call a nice ten point came over one side of the ridge and down the other before I could even rise my gun. I got up looked over the side of the hill for the buck but he was gone or hiding in the brush very well and not about to move from his cover. As I returned to the cabin I found Mike still had not returned so being worried that he may be lost in the snow covered woods I began easing my way through the woods to where Mike had told me he would be hunting. As I got close to his stand area I found Mike on the third ridge from his stand looking carefully across the fields below him. By now it was 12:30 p.m. and I got to Mike and ask where all the deer were. He explained that he hadn't seen anything all morning and just then we both spotted something crossing the field below us. I scoped it out and it was a skunk which in those woods were notorious for having rabies. I decided to shoot the skunk just in case and burned it by the cabin then buried it across the stream. We discussed our options of hunting the evening and next day or going back home to hunt there. We decided to go home so we loaded up the Volkswagen and slid on out toward home with nothing to show for the trip except a great memory to talk about for years to come and pass on to our children/ grandchildren. Thanks Mike Matthews for one more memory for my collection.

When I Was Young

Some thirty years ago I happened across a friend (Ricky Duke), his brother (Steve Duke) and their father(Charlie Duke) who took me into their home and treated me as though I was one of the family members. We became so close that it didn't matter what time of night I showed up at their house they would start cooking something and it didn't matter what it was everybody ate and got full as ticks on cedars( and that's pretty full in case you don't know). Charlie taught me the proper way to hold and shoot my bow and Ricky would practice with me till we got tired or we would go hunting for some kind of wild game.Everlyn(Charlies wife) was always telling a funny story and Granny(Everlyn's mother) was the cook for everyone that came by and there wasn't anything that she couldn't cook that didn't taste great. I hunted for two years before I learned from the best there was and it was then that I started taking deer with every kind of weapon I owned and anything I borrowed from the Duke family. Steve was a walking encyclopedia on deer hunting and was very instrumental in providing me with all the information I needed to take deer anytime of the season I wanted. Sherry Duke( Charlies daughter) was always helpful in the kitchen and she enjoyed every one's company that came by to visit. As the years went by I became alittle distant to the Duke family and have moved five counties away and never seem to have time now to go visit. I have however found out that Granny, Everlyn and Charlie have all pasted away now without my knowing it and Steve has come down with a illness which is taking a heavy toll on him as well. Hopefully before to long I'll be able to go visit them again but it will never be the same without the whole family there together. I guess when your young you take to many things for granted that things will last you your whole lifetime but this story just goes to show you that nothing last forever and sometimes it's short lived. The Duke family has given me so many memories throughout my time with them that I think of them almost daily. There'll be more stories on the Duke family but for this story I'd like to dedicate this one to all the Dukes including Charlie, Everlyn and Granny even though it's abit late for them. Thanks everyone for allowing me to remember a family that means so much to me and remember nothing last forever so cherish every moment you have with your loved ones and friends.

Lend a Helping Hand

Some of you have sent me e-mails requesting that I update my site with a new posting so this is it. Every now and then there comes a time in our lives when everything just piles up on us and we feel like no matter what we do we just can't get things to go the right way for ourselves. Well I'm at that point now but have decided that everything will work out for the best if I just let it happen as time allows. I've got more work around the home front then I could do in 5 years, my home is turned upside down by my grown children living with me and my wife, and my health is slowly fading away as I grow older but everything will work itself out as life goes on. Life is to short to worry about what will happen if the work doesn't get done, the children stay with you until eternity or your health rapidly deteriorates to a point that you can't do any of the things you used to do when you were young. When you reach this point sit down at home take some time to think of the world as a whole ( not just yourself) and then look at the world around yourself. I think you'll find out that your neighbors are in just as bad a shape as you are and they probably have the same problems or worst. Now think what would happen if everyone actually got out and helped their neighbors work their farmlands as they did back in the old days. Life's little problems come at you fast but with the help of others everything will work out for the best in the end. Just for one whole day forget about everything you have to do around your place and go help a neighbor with his work. Set it up with your teenage children to help a neighbor at least one day a week and see what a dramatic change in every ones life this will create. Now-a-days neighbors don't socialize like they used to due mainly to the fact that there's to must work to be done on their own farm and they don't have time for socializing. Try my suggestion and see how happy you make your neighbors then if things work out as they should the favor will be returned to you ten fold. Think of the way things used to be in the old days then think of how they have changed to today's world, there's a big difference but there doesn't have to be. We can all make things easier just by lending a helping hand. Problems cause stress on everyone but stress can be relieved just by lending a helping hand. Time away from your problems can actually relieve your stress so do something for yourself and help a neighbor out today the rewards will be great.

The Cost of Hunting/Fishing License

Why is it that the cost of our Hunting/Fishing license keep going up and up and every year there are more license to buy for the different types of hunting you wish to do.It seems as though every time a new type of equipment is allowed to be hunted with you have to buy a different type of license to use it.I can remember when you could buy just a hunting license and hunt anything you wanted from squirrel to bear to deer, wild hogs, dove, pigeons, coyotes, skunk, beaver, bobcat, fox and the list goes on and it didn't matter what you hunted with. Now days you have to buy a different license to hunt just about every game animal and a different license for the different types weapons you use to hunt them. Stop and think about it a minute and you'll realize like I do that every license cost more and more every year and you really get less and less every year for your money. Deer hunting used to be that you could kill 4 bucks whether it was all at once or one at a time and now you have to kill your bucks one at a time and check it in before killing another one. When this idea was put into effect I told game and fish agents that that was just going to bring about more poaching cause if I got the chance to kill all 4 bucks in one morning of hunting that's what I would do, the agent told me just don't get caught. The opportunity never has happened for me to shoot 4 bucks in one morning but it could have if conditions were right. Anyway they keep creating more licenses to buy and don't give you anything else for your money, so why keep separating the license? Why not go back to the old days and let you purchase one license for everything you hunt with for one price and be done with it. Recurve bows, compound bows and crossbows should all be under one license as should rifles and muzzle loaders and pistols. Are they scared someone is going to get one over on them or not buy the right type license for the type hunting they are doing, if so then my solution would cure all the problems and still create the revenue they are looking to get for individual licenses sales. It seems to me that the only thing Game and Fish agencies are interested in is the money they can make from separating all the different types of licenses and charging more each year. They have all these wardens on the road but do you ever see any of them in the field checking the license they sell ? no and do you know why -its because they don't want to get shot. They carry guns now days because some agents have been shot in the field but the fact remains that the agents would rather have the hunters find and report the poachers for them before they do anything about it. Sure you see and hear stories about a poacher being caught but that is by pure accident and is usually someone that really does need the food for his family to eat. We have the wardens to put in the field but do you know how many of them are really in the fields and woods checking licenses ? none that I know of , their always at the checking stations drinking coffee and feeding their faces when they should be out at 4:00 a.m. watching and checking hunters going into the fields and woods before the hunt. This is how our money should be used, not raising fish that can spawn for themselves if left alone to do so. I agree there are some species that need our help but not as many as the agencies would have you think. It's all part of a plot to undermine the hunters into spending more and more money until they finally realize that hunting cost way to much as does fishing, camping and any other outdoor activity we do. Camping now days is by reservation only and on a first come first serve basis and with a limited number of campsites. Just remember the next license you purchase could be your last license and Hunting/Fishing could be gone forever. Check into your local wildlife agency and find out just what exactly your money is being used for and then ask yourself and the agency if any of the money could be used for saving wild game before it's slaughtered.The agencies are heading in the wrong direction and they need our help in guiding them down the right path t5o saving our wildlife for future generations,and higher cost to the hunters/fisher people/outdoors people is not the answer we should expect. If you have regular meetings with the wildlife agencies in your area just ask two simple questions while the meeting is being held--- "Why is it the cost of our licenses keep going up but we see no results from the money to compensate us for the rising cost and why is it poachers can't be apprehended before entering the fields and woods and slaughtering our wild game, if their poachers they have no license so they have no need to be in the woods with weapons for taking our wild game.