Lloyd, thanks for putting your theory regarding “outdoor predatory behavior” out here for discussion. For me it landed in the context of having all five of my grandsons here for a week and stimulated a lot of forward thinking regarding them. Once before I thought quite a bit about this question. Both our sons were ”into” hunting and fishing growing up and I did all I could to enjoy and encourage these endeavors with them. One leaned more toward hunting and the other more toward fishing but by the time they were in their 20’s any desire for either was gone. Seemingly, for good.
Thinking further back both my grandfathers were farmers and bird hunters. Among their grandkids they encouraged all the hunting you wanted but not with them. You were on your own. Out of ten grandkids between them I was the only one who lasted. My father and two uncles barely had a pulse when it came to hunting.
I’m only a couple of moons from 77 and so these precious days with the grandsons had me looking for signs of interest among the four oldest (7-12) that I could “fan”. (The fifth is a toddler.) I “seeded the field” all that I could particularly where I saw interest and all of them responded enthusiastically. Will the effort produce lasting rootage? I don’t think I can know. And if it does in any of them, why?
From my life experience neither apathy (from the men in my early life) nor encouragement (from me with our sons) nor economic strain (of which there was never any lack) produced adults who enjoyed and pursued hunting and fishing. So then what do I think will? Passion. In the individual.
And whether that passion flames up early or later in life, that, it seems, is what keeps the fire of “outdoor predatory behavior” burning.
Last edited by FallCreekFan; 06/06/26 10:40 PM.
