I grew up in North Dakota. Specifically Minot. When I was young my entire family was in to hunting deer, geese and game birds. My uncle Jeff would regularly take me out bow hunting for deer early or late in the season when rifle hunters weren’t allowed. It was very cold up there near the Canadian border (zoom in and look for the stream) just north of the Renville county corner. Really, Really cold, but usually we walked in the little bit of woods that we could find.

My Uncle would drop me off at one end of a long stretch of woods that ran around a small stream and he would tell me to wait in the open until he drove the truck down to the other end and walked in. He would be completely covered in camouflage and dressed warmly to sit in one spot silently while hopefully the deer walked by pushed by me.

Once I saw him walk in the one side I would give him a few minutes and walk in the other end. I would zigzag the entire way until finally I ran into him sitting against a tree. We did this for years. I can remember only one deer we actually killed in this manner. It was a long walk for me, but I enjoyed the outdoors and walking, exploring as a 10 year old boy.

I became very familiar with these woods. I would remember trees, bends in the stream and areas where the woods became very narrow. One early winter my Uncle dropped me off in a spot I wasn’t so familiar with. I was to walk down the embankment and wait for him. I waited a long time and headed up the other side to presumably walk into him. Well I didn’t run into him for quite a period of time. I was young and became rather scared. I walked back and forth along the path I thought I was to take and it just didn’t seem right to me.

After many minutes, and what seemed like hours to me I saw my uncle walking out of the woods a few yards away. He had expected, and probably made it very clear to me, to walk up the embankment and when the stream turned to the right break off and walk northwest over a small hill. He was waiting there wondering what had happened. Of course we acted as if nothing had happened and continued on hunting the rest of the day.

I think I learned that day that I needed to be responsible for where I was to go. Up until that point I relied on my parents and family to tell me to do this or that or go here. Well now I needed to clarify if I wasn’t sure what to do and I needed to be capable of handling tasks that were expected of a young adult (I was like 9 or 10). It was certainly a shocking feeling.

I always felt that my uncle had a sort of contempt for me. I think he transferred his feelings for my father to me and let it change his actions. He was always very nice to me, but I don’t think he ever thought much of me or thought I would become much. In fact I doubt he ever considered it. He did what I needed at the time and that was someone to show me how to act and kept me out of trouble for many years.

I still made plenty of mistakes, but I always knew it was my fault. I never blamed others for my mistakes and I never took the blame for theirs, but that’s another hunting trip. In fact, my last.

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