I posted this on the "Best Gun Writers" thread, but it's worth repeating this day
Shotgunner's Notebook "Our World Without Shotguns"
"No shotguns, no poetry. No shotguns, no exuberant competition. No shotguns, no silent days alone, or with a dog, to merely walk and think. Take the shotguns from my life and take the books that go with them. Take the paintings and the etchings and bronzed pointing Setters and Labs with a proudly carried duck. Take my decoys and my marsh boat and my string of calls. Take my old photographs of friends at gun clubs and duck camps and at the simple farms. Take my faded coats and briared boots and old soft hats. Take my whistles and dog bells and red and yellow field trial ribbons from their frames.
What friends I have, what days I treasure most, what places I think about and smile...these are because shotguns are. Without them I would have been empty. They have made my life full."
I'm thankful for the dogs that have given me such joy. My life would have been so much less without them.
I'm thankful for friends to share days afield, and even the "imaginary internet friends" I've met here
I'm thankful for Robert Ruark and
The Old Man and The Boy which, along with the Boy Scouts, changed the direction of my life as a young man. I'm sorry he couldn't defeat his demons.
I'm thankful for living in MO. and KS. where hunting was part of the culture, and though quail have certainly declined, one could still have good hunts for quail, pheasant, waterfowl, deer and turkey.
I'm thankful I now live in the most gun friendly state in the U.S., with Mearns, but there aren't any this year, so no reason to come
I'm thankful that when the world seems to be sliding into chaos and evil is rising, God is still on His throne and pray the decline in our national character and morals can be reversed.
I could WAY do without the drama and pathologic narcissism here, but I'm still thankful for this place where we can share our interest in double guns and ask for help.
How 'bout you?
