The squirrels in my neighborhood have been less active during this unusually hot summer. Maybe they will become a little more active now that the 2016/2017 squirrel season has arrived in Georgia. The lengthy squirrel season began Aug. 15 and runs until Feb. 28.

The opening of squirrel season reminded me of my first adventure into hunting as a young boy and it involved the pursuit of squirrels. There were very few deer around and turkeys were almost nonexistent, so most of my hunting as a young boy was for squirrels, doves and quail.

Squirrel hunting allowed my daddy to teach me the basics of Hunting 101 while under his close supervision. Squirrel hunting also allowed my brothers and me to spend some quality time together.

Today deer and turkey demand most of the hunting spotlight and likely results in the majority of the hours that are spent hunting. As a young boy, squirrel hunting was simply pure fun. All you needed was a .22 rifle or a 20 gauge shotgun and a few shells and you were ready to go. We could hunt almost anywhere since very little land was posted and landowners would readily let us hunt their land.

Our day of squirrel hunting usually began well before the start of daylight with a short drive to a spot preselected by daddy. A favorite spot was the woods along Corner Creek in south Alabama. We would walk slowly through the woods with our eyes fixed skyward in search of any movement that might indicate a scampering squirrel trying to escape.

During earlier trips by my brothers, we had a small fox terrier that could locate a squirrel if any were around and that gave my brothers a much better chance for success. If that dog stopped at a tree and looked up, you could bet that tree had a squirrel somewhere in its branches. However, that great squirrel dog passed away before I began hunting squirrels.

Today’s sophisticated hunters refer to the technique that I was introduced to as stalking but to us it was just a good way to slip up on an unsuspecting squirrel. If we came across a squirrel nest near the ground we would shake nearby vines in an attempt to scare the squirrel out of the nest so we could get a shot.

Along the way as we walked through the woods, we would stop to rest and take a drink from numerous springs that flowed along the creek. Today it would certainly be unsafe to drink that water and it’s even more likely that those springs along Corner Creek have long since dried up.

We would continue down the creek for several miles before stopping for a lunch on the creek bank. Our lunch usually consisted of a can of Vienna sausage and crackers or maybe some sardines. I still enjoy an occasional can of Vienna sausage but I cannot quite stomach the sardines anymore.

As I mentioned earlier, we usually drank from the springs but sometimes we would take a Mason jar along with some of mother’s sweet tea. Canned cokes or canned soft drinks were not an option because they had not yet been invented. We did have bottled coke but that did not stand a chance against mother’s sweet tea or that fresh spring water.

Everything we took into the woods came out with us. No trash was left behind. Daddy instilled that principle in us and it still sticks today. I guess that is why I get really upset today when I see folks littering the outdoors.

We never encountered another hunter on any of those squirrel hunts and our shots were the only shots that echoed through the woods as far as I remember. The woods were peaceful and quite, wearing orange was not required and there was no worry about getting shot by another hunter.

Today the woods are anything but quite. The woods are full of hunters, you must wear orange to hopefully protect yourself from being shot and if you drank from a stream, you might die on the spot.

Today fewer and fewer hunters are able to just simply enjoy being in the woods. Hunting has become high stakes, highly expensive and in many cases completely void of fellowship with other hunters or family members.

After a day of squirrel hunting on Corner Creek, we would clean our squirrels and mother would cook them as only she could. Hunting for us often meant putting a meal on our table. I remember those delicious meals of baked squirrel and fried dove and quail. Nothing was wasted back then and we were thankful to the good Lord for the hunting experience and the food it sometimes provided.

Today squirrels are much more plentiful. I have more in my yard in a week than I saw in all my squirrel hunting trips as a young boy. Why not take a son, daughter or grandchild for a day of squirrel hunting. Have some quality time with them, experience the great outdoors and then cook up some squirrel stew in the microwave! Good hunting and see you next week.