- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
When I began hunting, things were very different, stuff went on that today would cause disbelief.
Any time after ten in the morning, you could expect to be offered a drink, most men had booze on their breath, and it was the excepted practice. If someone came for a visit, he was offered a drink. You knew who the drunks were, and there were a few, and they didn't join your party when hunting. Some of them circulated the camps looking for a drink every night. When you didn't offer it, they didn't come back.
We all dressed in red plaid. My uncle, and my grandfather both carried handguns in addition to their rifles.
When we bought our licenses, it was a deer/bear license.
When you came out of the bush after a hunt, my grandfather would reach under the seat of the old car and pull out a bottle for us all to have a good drink.
Getting drunk was socially unacceptable, frowned upon. It simply never happened in our camp. Grandfather ruled.
Beer was there, and it was much stronger than today's watered down stuff, but I remember drinking Rye more.
If you got too much whiskey down your gullet, you'd get cleaned out at poker.
I was the only non-smoker in camp. Not that it made much difference, as the cabin was so full of smoke it made your eyes water. Not just from the pipes, cigars and cigarettes, but from the old wood stove, and the coal oil lamps as well.
The camp had running water, if you ran from the well outside. It also had two out houses.
The hunt there was a week only, and not one man attempted to bathe during the week. Face and hands was all that was cleaned. Everyone smelled fairly foul by weeks end.
There were of course no ATV's. Some camps had the luxury of a horse to pull out game, we used man power, even from several miles in, over very rough terrain.
Driving through town with a deer on the roof was normal. It wouldn't get you a second glance. Trucks were far less common too, as was four wheel drive, most people drove cars. Four wheel drive was so uncommon you could almost say it didn't exist. You got stuck. You learned to deal with it, and not go in those places.
Scoped rifles in the hunt camps around us were a real rarity, as was pretty much anything that wasn't an SMLE, although there were a few of us wandering about with '94 Winchesters. They were not called SMLE's either, simply 303's.
If you'd mentioned a tree stand in those days, you'd have had to explain what it was first, and probably get laughed at. Everyone hunted with drives back then, at least around us. A few with dogs. It was the accepted practice, and other techniques were 'something the Americans do in the magazines'.
There were city folk lining the highways, (legal back then) sitting on lawn chairs with their rifles, watching for deer to cross the road. Those were the ones with the shiny scoped rifles.
Anti hunting folk were small in number, and generally regarded as idiots and ignored. (Something we pay for now.)
Things have changed. For the better? Maybe, but there are a lot more hunters in the bush now too.
Geezus I just realized I'm the only one left alive of that camp. May God rest their souls.
Any time after ten in the morning, you could expect to be offered a drink, most men had booze on their breath, and it was the excepted practice. If someone came for a visit, he was offered a drink. You knew who the drunks were, and there were a few, and they didn't join your party when hunting. Some of them circulated the camps looking for a drink every night. When you didn't offer it, they didn't come back.
We all dressed in red plaid. My uncle, and my grandfather both carried handguns in addition to their rifles.
When we bought our licenses, it was a deer/bear license.
When you came out of the bush after a hunt, my grandfather would reach under the seat of the old car and pull out a bottle for us all to have a good drink.
Getting drunk was socially unacceptable, frowned upon. It simply never happened in our camp. Grandfather ruled.
Beer was there, and it was much stronger than today's watered down stuff, but I remember drinking Rye more.
If you got too much whiskey down your gullet, you'd get cleaned out at poker.
I was the only non-smoker in camp. Not that it made much difference, as the cabin was so full of smoke it made your eyes water. Not just from the pipes, cigars and cigarettes, but from the old wood stove, and the coal oil lamps as well.
The camp had running water, if you ran from the well outside. It also had two out houses.
The hunt there was a week only, and not one man attempted to bathe during the week. Face and hands was all that was cleaned. Everyone smelled fairly foul by weeks end.
There were of course no ATV's. Some camps had the luxury of a horse to pull out game, we used man power, even from several miles in, over very rough terrain.
Driving through town with a deer on the roof was normal. It wouldn't get you a second glance. Trucks were far less common too, as was four wheel drive, most people drove cars. Four wheel drive was so uncommon you could almost say it didn't exist. You got stuck. You learned to deal with it, and not go in those places.
Scoped rifles in the hunt camps around us were a real rarity, as was pretty much anything that wasn't an SMLE, although there were a few of us wandering about with '94 Winchesters. They were not called SMLE's either, simply 303's.
If you'd mentioned a tree stand in those days, you'd have had to explain what it was first, and probably get laughed at. Everyone hunted with drives back then, at least around us. A few with dogs. It was the accepted practice, and other techniques were 'something the Americans do in the magazines'.
There were city folk lining the highways, (legal back then) sitting on lawn chairs with their rifles, watching for deer to cross the road. Those were the ones with the shiny scoped rifles.
Anti hunting folk were small in number, and generally regarded as idiots and ignored. (Something we pay for now.)
Things have changed. For the better? Maybe, but there are a lot more hunters in the bush now too.
Geezus I just realized I'm the only one left alive of that camp. May God rest their souls.
