Growing up way,way in the country the last place bordering a game reserve, the nearest neighbor a mile away, I was always aware we didn’t live in the sticks, but I hoped to someday. The woods were full of wild pigs, deer, coyote, foxes, alligators, a few black bear, snakes, birds, and a plethora of other wild creatures. It wasn’t a great idea to go stumbling around in the dark out there, especially without knee-high boots, a pistol, and a light.
It was not uncommon for hunters to come walking up to our place, any time of the day or night, reporting being stuck in the deeply rutted roads and off-road areas of the reserve, muddy, fatigued, and bedraggled, desperate for help in getting out of a mud hole. Daddy or my brother sometimes cranked the tractor, bounced them back to their disaster, and pulled them out. It could take quite a while and was a lot of work. More often than not, if they had no cash, they left personal property to be redeemed when they came back with cash.
One morning about daylight, visitors of a different type came walking up, a teenage couple who’d gone parking and gotten stuck. The girl explained, they’d spent the night in the car, afraid to walk out, thinking a bear might get them.
I was amazed. Her father must have been nothing like mine. There wasn’t a bear big or bad enough to warrant getting caught spending the night in a parked car with a boy. I’d have faced a dozen bears rather than Daddy with a story like that!
With bears, etc. around, I don’t think I would have been outside at night with or without a boy. 😀 — Suzanne
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I never saw anything worse than a coyote or rattlesnake, but I would have tangled with them before Daddy.
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There are creatures far more dangerous than the bear !! ☺
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Yep.
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Sounds like daddy would become a bear if he heard a story like that! LOL!
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He WAS a bear and believe me, I’d never have tried that story!
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LOL!! I don’t blame you. 😀
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Reblogged this on Nutsrok and commented:
Repost of an old post
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funny. real funny. 🙂
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Thanks.
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Whoa! Alligators AND bears?! Sounds like some interesting animals in them there woods of yours!!! 🙂
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Oh yes. This is in the bayous of Louisiana.
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Yes, sure… it was the bear that made them spend the night in the car…
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Yep!
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😃
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I’b be afraid to camp in a wild place, when I was a girl I camped with my parents and their friends, but not a place like you are relating us, anyway I think you’re lucky.
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I still love the outdoors. The freedom to roam once the work was done was wonderful.
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You’re lucky! I wish I spent my childhood in a place like that.
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Where did you grow up?
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Unfortunately, in the city. Fortunately, my Dad was adventurous enough to take me rock climbing or simply hiking and camping at least 3 or 4 times a year.
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Then you would have loved our place. 120 acres in the wilderness. Cows, horses, hogs, chickens, ducks, geese, a pond. The bonus was, everybody worked EVERY day. There was fencebuilding, hay making, bush hogging, plowing, brush piling, wood cutting, stock to be fed and cared for. The good thing was, after work was done, we could ride horses, swim in the pond, play in the woods. We had the run of the place. Sometimes we slept in the barn for fun.
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Oh, if we wanted, we could hunt. I never wanted to.
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Now I REALLY wish I was born and grew up in that place!!
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Yep, I can understand being more afraid of daddy than of that bear. I wonder if that boy had to hide out for the foreseeable future so that her daddy couldn’t find him.
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Probably needed to
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What country are you in? We used to see bear and moose quite frequently in Northern, Ontario, Canada. We are near Toronto, Ontario now and I saw a coyote run down our street the other day. No crocs or gators here (yet).
Leslie
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Louisiana. Very few black bear, bur they are here. No crocs.
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How about moose?
Leslie
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Oh no. Just deer. No elk or moose.
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