Sometimes people need to take a step back form their hectic lives and appreciate the good memories they have acquired over the years. Good memories are accumulated in many different ways. It could be a trip, a nice dinner or just an evening out with those people that mean a lot to you. When I think back over my life I am fortunate to have a pretty solid bank of good memories to draw from.

Each hunting season is an opportunity to fill your bank with experiences and memories to reflect on throughout the next year and beyond. It is up to you to make the most of your season and this can vary greatly from individual to individual. People have responsibilities and commitments that can and often do mess up a day in the field. So make the most of your time and savor the experience.

Driving to my farm today I found myself thinking about Steve Vranch a very good friend of my father and mine who passed away last year. Now Steve was very good to my family. He was someone to look up to, to learn from and to watch very closely especially at turkey camp.

You see, Steve never rested on last years prank and quite frankly you expected nothing but the best in the way. One of his most memorable pranks was the ghost of ideclare. The back story of ideclare was when Steve was a boy and misbehaved his grandmother would sigh “I declare” and would tell him that ideclare was a ghost that would get little boys that misbehaved. When my brother had picked on the last nerve of nearly every grownup at camp Steve decided to take matters into his own hands and teach him a lesson after he went to bed. After a determined amount of bourbon out to the barn he went and soon returned with a long heavy length of chain. Steve cautiously slipped up the stairwell past my brother’s room and crept up into the attic. At first a low moaning aided by the help of a wail or two ever so softly began to emanate from the attic and then came the chains. Screams, wails, moans and chains. You get the picture and so did my brother who after that experience had a decidedly different outlook on things and straightened right up. In fact it scared him so badly that my mother banned Steve from even mentioning the ghost of ideclare within earshot of Pat.

Every time I think of that story it makes me smile. Not because my brother was tormented by a fictitious ghost, well maybe a little, but because that story is told often at camp and allows everyone to think back and smile at a friend that enriched our lives and many others.

So this year when you head to the field or duck blind savor the experience and put it in your bank. Next time you find yourself driving on a long trip all you have to do is think back to your friends at hunt camp and smile. You’ll be surprised how much shorter the trip is. Good gunning.