El and I enjoyed a bonfire the one rare cool and dry evening last week. I exasperated her by using charcoal lighter fluid to start the blaze before she joined me with a tray of cheese, almonds, and cocktails. She is a first rate firestarter and probably would have gotten a conflagration out the pile of old pine logs, pine needles, and twigs and dried leaves with just a match. Anyway, we wiled away an evening with snacking and conversation about this day and memories of long ago days. We ended the evening staring into the flames.
Ellen’s family used to have many picnics in the summer and fall with campfires, frying fish or cooking over the coals. Many were held down in a cool hollow at a clearing in an uncle’s pasture with a shelter unofficially dubbed Hauk’s Campgrounds. Kids played in the nearby creek while the adults played cards under the shelter. Ellen and her sister Barb sometimes rode their ponies to the get together. There were ball games, hikes, and lots of good food and conversation. I had the good fortune of making it to at least of one of those picnics at the campground before and after I had my official family bona-fides and we quit going to the campgrounds.
Next up in 2016 is the Squirrel Picnic. This first of the fall feast moved up to Ellen’s brother Dick and sister-in-law Betty’s farm up on the ridge along Highway 133 near Burton sometime in the 1970’s. We held the meal and card games in the cool shade of Dick’s pole shed, surrounded by piles of straw, machinery, and cats for years. The highlight of the afternoon for a lot of us was the jungle rules football game played in sort of mowed pasture between the pole shed and hog barn by teams of sort of adults and real kids. This was rough, tackle football with blood drawn often enough. I know I missed work almost every Monday after the Squirrel Picnic football game; today, I would have been on a concussion protocol for certain.
The Squirrel Picnic football game and big feed are held up on Dutch Hollow Road at Barb and Chuck’s. The food is set up in the man cave in their walkout basement and the game is played in their large back yard. The game is now touch football, but it is still sort of jungle rules as one out of bounds line is a barbed wire fence!
I hope to be in Burton to help deep fry and prepare the squirrel for roasting again this year, and I guess I have to get out and get a couple squirrels for the pot too. Hunting season is upon us. The youth duck hunt, early goose hunt, bear hunt, squirrel hunt, dove hunt, woodcock hunt, archery deer hunt, fall turkey hunt, even crow season will be underway this weekend. Hmmm. . . that might be interesting to toss a couple crow breasts into the mix for the Squirrel Picnic.
Until next time, get out - of course it is not just hunting season; the fishing can be pretty good this time of the year too, which reminds me to put in a plug for the First Annual Kevin Withy Memorial Walleye Tournament coming up on September 24. The proceeds will be donated to Cancer research in Kevin’s name. For information call 608-780-0184 or 608-516-9702. Enjoy.
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