The Coffee Klatch
The year was 1950 and 15 year old Dan was up in the Blue’s (Blue Mountains) hunting with his dad off the Hogeye, a twisty old gravel road that was mostly used by farmers and hunters and probably still is.
It was deer season. Father and son had stopped to rest on a high grassy knoll those many years ago when they saw the bear sniffing along a dusty cattle trail some distance below them in a draw.
Dan’s hunting license covered bears, so he asked his dad if he should take a shot.
“Dad humored me,” Dan recollected “because I wasn’t expert enough to judge the distance down the hill.”
So with his dads approval, Dan lifted his 300-Savage, aimed, and fired. They watched as the bullet scattered the dirt well above the bears head. The bear’s response was a swift jerk and a top speed bolt down the cow path.
That’s when they became aware of eight hunters at the far end of the canyon enjoying their morning coffee, circled around a campfire … built right on the cow path. The bear was moving like a steam engine and there was nothing slowing its momentum as the path curved and headed directly towards the coffee klatch.
Dan and his dad watched with mixed horror and delight as the men became aware of the snorting and earth pounding 300-lb bruin crashing towards them. The bear torpedoed through the fire grate, exploding pot, coffee, and fire in all direction. The hunters somersaulted and twisted themselves backwards as in a synchronized gymnastic routine. Not one of them recovered their senses in time to get their own rifle aimed at the bear. And the bear..... just kept on truckin’.
Dan’s face softens with a well-used grin as he reminisces. The hunting times he recalls so fondly with his dad provide him with memories that could fill a book and his eyes with tears. Those were special times and every story should be told and written down for his grandkids to enjoy.
After he finished this tale during this mornings version of a coffee klatch, he shook his head , chuckled, then shared a little secret about his 60 years of hunting: He has never bagged a deer.
“They are just too pretty,” he explained. “I could never pull the trigger.”
It was deer season. Father and son had stopped to rest on a high grassy knoll those many years ago when they saw the bear sniffing along a dusty cattle trail some distance below them in a draw.
Dan’s hunting license covered bears, so he asked his dad if he should take a shot.
“Dad humored me,” Dan recollected “because I wasn’t expert enough to judge the distance down the hill.”
So with his dads approval, Dan lifted his 300-Savage, aimed, and fired. They watched as the bullet scattered the dirt well above the bears head. The bear’s response was a swift jerk and a top speed bolt down the cow path.
That’s when they became aware of eight hunters at the far end of the canyon enjoying their morning coffee, circled around a campfire … built right on the cow path. The bear was moving like a steam engine and there was nothing slowing its momentum as the path curved and headed directly towards the coffee klatch.
Dan and his dad watched with mixed horror and delight as the men became aware of the snorting and earth pounding 300-lb bruin crashing towards them. The bear torpedoed through the fire grate, exploding pot, coffee, and fire in all direction. The hunters somersaulted and twisted themselves backwards as in a synchronized gymnastic routine. Not one of them recovered their senses in time to get their own rifle aimed at the bear. And the bear..... just kept on truckin’.
Dan’s face softens with a well-used grin as he reminisces. The hunting times he recalls so fondly with his dad provide him with memories that could fill a book and his eyes with tears. Those were special times and every story should be told and written down for his grandkids to enjoy.
After he finished this tale during this mornings version of a coffee klatch, he shook his head , chuckled, then shared a little secret about his 60 years of hunting: He has never bagged a deer.
“They are just too pretty,” he explained. “I could never pull the trigger.”
Comments
and I haven't shot one either, although I quit hunting way before 60 years.
Don Lynch
I'm a bear without my coffee, too. ;)