When I was around 12 was out with the old man coon hunting one night. He ran red bones and blue ticks which were the furthest thing from pets. Dogs treed a coon and the old man shot it and it failed to fall out of a big maple. Mind in those days a prime coon could fetch $50-70 so leaving one was not an option.
As was common in those days the old man had had a few and tried to get me to climb and knock the coon out. Even at that age I knew climbing a tree in the dark might not be the wisest choice. Pissed in more ways than one the old boy decides he is going to show the young buck.
25ft up he goes and the coon comes out and I am thinking "I will never hear the end of this". I hear SNAP, and the old boy bounces out of this big tree, very much like the coon. Not knowing better I burst out laughing and doesn't the blue tick turn from the coon and grab the old man by the leg and start shaking. All with the old man groaning and cursing and me not realizing how serious it could have been.
Once I got the dog off and the old man collected himself he decided to head the couple miles home which must have been an excruciating hell and when he did get home he couldn't walk for 2 days. I did learn that my original suspicions were correct, climbing trees in the dark though hilarious from the ground can be a little hazardous in reality. The days of simpler times.
