With hunting season now in full swing, my thoughts always return to my childhood as a young boy growing up in rural south Alabama. I have enjoyed hunting from the time I was a young boy when I followed my daddy through the woods that we hunted near a stream named Corner Creek. Things were about as positive as they could be for a young boy like myself during those times.

As I have grown to be a grandfather, I continue to see positive things about hunting but unfortunately today I see so many things that are not positive. Negative things are occurring in many aspects of our American way of life including hunting. I know that I sometimes yearn for the innocent and somewhat simple days of my childhood for my own grandchildren. Maybe I’m just old fashioned but I do not think so.

Everyday we read or hear about our American children and grandchildren becoming overweight and facing an uncertain future regarding their health. Instead of hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities they spend huge amounts of time watching TV, playing indoor games or visiting the local fast-food store.

The future of the traditional sport of hunting in our country is dependent on today’s children and their parents. Statistics show that the number of hunters is decreasing in America everyday. When I was growing up, there was little to compete with an opportunity to go hunting and fishing.

Today our children have many other options for activity and many of those options are not necessarily positive. Computer games, Internet and TV are three of the lesser evils that take much of our children’s time but there are larger evils like drugs, crime and just plan laziness.

When we see family life in our nation as a whole unraveling, then a growth in quality family time in the sport of hunting may be hard to expect. Fathers and grandfathers but also mothers and grandmothers can invest in the positive side of a child’s future by getting involved with your children and grandchildren and introducing them to hunting and other outdoor activities.

The reality of being in and seeing God’s creation will have a much more positive impact on a young child than hours playing computer games and using the Internet. Those activities are not necessarily bad but when it consumes our children’s total interest and time even to the point of being unhealthy, it is bad!

My early memories about hunting as a young boy have remained with me throughout my life. The lessons I received while hunting as a young boy are lessons I have been able to apply in many aspects of my own life and hopefully, I have been able to pass some of those lessons on to my children and grandchildren. Respect of nature, respect of others property, sharing with others, safety and the respect of authority are some of the things I learned from my hunting as a youngster.

My daddy started his seven sons out at a young age learning the principles of hunting. He began by teaching us to respect the environment, to respect the property of others, to only kill what the family could and would eat and how to properly handle a gun. I thought he was a master hunter and woodsman and knew everything about the outdoors but back then that’s just the way it was done.

Back then respect was a key word, whether it applied to hunting or to other events in life. You just didn’t consider trespassing on another person’s property. You always asked permission to hunt. Most of the time the landowner approved and most times you were told to come again.

Today if we want to hunt, we have to pay huge sums of money to lease land for hunting. Paying to use land for hunting resulted from hunters acts of trespassing and the current American idea that making money is the most important thing in life.

The hunting trips with my daddy and brothers were wonderful times in my life and they have provided me with a long list of hunting memories. Those opening day dove shoots, those Thanksgiving Day squirrel hunts and the many hunting trips in Virginia with my brothers are great lasting memories.

I can’t quite see my daddy riding an ATV or going up a tree 40 feet to deer hunt. I know he would not have cared for crowded woods that have been trashed by hunters, the noise caused by ATVs, having to pay to hunt and the few slobs that make a bad name for the sport of hunting. I can’t say that I like a lot of aspects about hunting today myself and I do have to wonder about the future of hunting.

I am thankful for my hunting memories and to those who helped create those memories and I do have hope for the future of hunting for my grandchildren and their children and their grandchildren. I hope that you might feel the same way and if you hunt, I hope you and your family have a wonderful hunting season that is filled with lasting memories. Good hunting and see you next week.