I like your story about your growing up years on the farm. Ernest Hemingway's father, Dr. Clarence E. Hemingway, was much the same in his teaching Ernest about " 1 shot kills" and respect for the game you had shot, and that what you killed, you brought home, cleaned and ate at table.

We never ate any of the barn pigeons or dump or farmyard rats we killed with our .22's in my boyhood days. But- you could ride your Schwinn bike with your .22 rifle in its cases, strapped to the handlebars, down country dirt roads- whether to the dumps on Sat. afternoons, or any day when squirrel season was open, and never have anyone panic or call the Sheriff and report your activity- Can't do that now-a-days.

Enjoyed reading your article-- RWTF

"The field is the touchstone of the man"..