“When I was a child, hunting with my dad was a treat. I know about those hills. I have said before, we hunted and raised all our food. I was the one to go hunting with my dad, I had 3 brothers but my oldest didn’t like it and my 2 younger brothers were to young at the time. Dad liked to go when it had rained just a little because the animals couldn’t hear you walking on the leaves. It was quiet. Me carrying our lantern and daddy walking in front of me, letting branches smack me in the face, I didn’t like that part. Then, dad would let the dogs go. We would sit down and wait till we heard the dogs tree. Dad would roll him a cigarette up and smoke it. Then all of a sudden, here we’d go. Jump up and listen for their bark to lead us right to em. We get there, daddy would call them off the tree and he would shine his light up there and see a coon or opossum. Sometimes, he would let me shoot it out. He would praise his dogs and pat em on the head. We would start home. I know I was a girl but more than that, I loved going hunting with my dad, it was always a special time, just us and the dogs.”
—Gigi 2021
My Papaw was a big coon hunter. My brothers and my cousins were really big on coon hunting too, but I never wanted to tag along.
The girls hunted with Matt a few times here and there. Corie got a turkey one time.
I love Gigi’s memories. I was a real daddy’s girl. Even though I never hunted with Pap I can certainly identify with those special times she described.
Last night’s video: The Family History & Stories of Opal Corn Myers 42.
Tipper
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Gene, in my comment I mentioned gun safety, my father in law gave his oldest grandson (Curtis) a 410 shotgun. He was with us one day while hunting, we just happened to be in the turnip patch. Curtis was talking about his 410 not being as dangerous as our 12 gauges. I told him to let me see his 410 and to hold my empty gun. I took the 410 and blowed a turnip all to pieces and gave it back to him. I then told him it would do the same thing to a man’s head. 25 years later he will tell me about the impression doing that made on him, he will say I didn’t think my 410 would do something like that.
We have a bunch of hunters in my family. My uncle has always been an avid deer hunter and my husband loves it too. He’s asked me to go huntin with him many times but the older I get the bigger my heart gets for animals it seems. I just don’t think I could watch a deer with their big pretty eyes and then kill it. On the other hand it sure is some good eating! The real reason I won’t go is because I’m not much of a morning person and the idea of getting up at 3 in the morning to go climb a tree and sit in the cold does not appeal to me lol. I love spending time outdoors but I don’t have the patience for hunting. Now fishing is another story…daddy took me fishing starting when I was just a Itty bitty gal and as long as they’re biting I’ll fish for hours. Daddy recently got a little fiest pup and has started taking him squirrel hunting and they both love it. Don’t have any coon hunters in my bunch unless you count my bulldog…a coon got into the backyard with him last week and wrapped around his head! Poor feller had scratches allover his head. I’m praying it didn’t infect him with any disease because it’s odd for the raccoons around here to venture in the backyard, they know the dog lives back there. It’s even more odd that he didn’t kill the raccoon….it survived the ordeal and ran up a tree. Hope everybody is doing good over that way! God bless
Nice story, but seems to me that the teller of that tale should have learned early on to put enough distance between the person ahead and herself that released branches didn’t smack her. I’m the youngest of 6 boys and spent a lot of time in the woods with them and alone. It was an initiation ritual to hold a branch back and let it swat the next in line, especially if limbs or leaves were wet. Shouldn’t take more than twice to learn that lesson.
Robert, Gigi was being humorous, 🙂 of course one would learn after the first occurrence.She used the phrase as a descriptive way of making others feel that they were there with the bushes and limbs too.
There is no such thing as a bad dog! But there is bad people!
I forgot to say we didn’t have quail either, nor were there any bird dogs in our family.
I went hunting with my Grand-dad. I still have a red fox cape/stole & muff that my Mamaw made after having the skin tanned. I consider them as one of my greatest treasures.
My daddy never went hunting. He spent my childhood toting a gun for Uncle Sam in Korea and Vietnam. When I turned 18 and married, my husband went deer hunting but it turned out to be the 2 legged kind. I remember the first time he went hunting. I sat on the front porch swing the next morning and at sunrise and shot a huge 9 point buck across the road from our house with my camera. For years my neighbor would shoot groundhogs every day in his garden. He’s in the nursing home now. Another neighbor used to go coon hunting with a group of his friends every winter. Their coon dog, a beautiful beagle always ended up at our house afterward while looking for his way home after a quick snack from us. Our 45 acres are overrun with black bear, coyote, raccoon, opossum, deer, rabbits, squirrel, groundhog and turkey. Hunters are getting scarce. Folks are moving here in droves from California, Florida and New York and most city folks don’t tend to hunt. I rarely hear a gun shot any more much less a pack of hounds.
Randy- the women are still preparing the Thanksgiving meal BUT the men are glued to the tv watching football. Have a great day!
Nobody in my family hunts. My dad and his people were city folk. Now my mom’s side were country folks and had a couple of hunters, but they were like Gigi’s dad and basically only hunted squirrels, coons or possums. My husband when we were first married went coon hunting with some of friends. He came home extremely exhausted and said hunting wasn’t his thing, so he never has tried it again. I figure it’s because none of his people were hunters either. Now we all like the deer meat that our hunter friends have given us in the past and sure did appreciate them sharing it with us, so we have never opposed hunting at all. In fact we all think it is needed to help control the deer/wild animal population. I’d rather see a deer or any wild animal that a hunter has shot than seeing one on the side of the road dying a slow painful death after it’s been hit by a car. I think the reason none of our immediate family ever hunted is because they don’t have the patience to sit still long enough, or the skills to prep them after they are shot. I could be wrong, but that’s just my guess. They all know how to use a gun, but only use them for target shooting, gun matches and protection if ever needed. I’m sure if anything ever happened and they needed to provide food for our families, they would learn real quick how to have patience and how to do the prep afterwards. Hunting, trapping, fishing, gardening, forging, cooking and preserving are all excellent life skills to learn and enjoy to sustain life. I sometimes think as a modern society we have become to depend on convenience food sources. I’m thinking one day many of us will regret not having all them survival skills, but thankful at least we have a few of them.
Just curious how one cooks a raccoon? Any tried and true ones?
Linda, Matt has a dear friend who cooks them in the oven like a turkey 🙂
Hunting with our Dad was a special event in our family. He took his hunting seriously, so when he allowed us to go with him, it meant he thought we were responsible enough to be trusted and a step toward adulthood . I have some fond memories of every outing. I started passing his guns down to his grand children, and was pleased that they treasure them as much as I.
Did you and your family eat Coon, or what did you do with them. I have never tried that. Squirrel, rabbits, prairie chicken were delicious. Lots of fish, of course.
Thank you. I love your posts.
As a young girl, me and my sister begged daddy and moms to let us go coon hunting with our granddaddy and uncle. Granddaddy raised coon dogs to sell and our uncle called every dog he had the same name. Well, they let us go. What an experience. We went up Cal Romines Hill not far from the house. We all settled in around a BIG fire they built. Granddaddy got the frying pan out and made a big pot of coffee. He fried up some fat back and let the dogs loose. He had a gallon jug cut off with just one end he put to his ears to hear the dogs run. It wouldn’t no time until he jumped up really fast and was hollowing “Go gettem Susie.” Well he no more than got those words out of his mouth when a big Panther jumped across the fire and scared me and my sister to death. Loved the coffee and the meat, but we never asked to go hunting again. lol Daddy would let us shoot mistletoe out of the trees and squirrel and rabbit hunt. We also had a BIG hill in front of the house that we would slide down on the dry leaves if we could find a big piece of cardboard. How I wish I could turn back the clock sometimes. I hope granny is well enough to see her doctor. God bless everyone. So many prayers he has answered. He is so good to our families.
I asked my dad why he never went hunting like he did as a kid and he told me that he got so tired of hunting when he had to hunt during the depression, that he never wanted to hunt again.
I loved reading the stories.
This is wonderful! I met my husband coon hunting with my brother. We’ve been married 41 years. Best thing we ever caught was each other!
On the hunting note, our oldest granddaughter Grace (she is a twin) got her first deer with a bow Thursday evening. She is 14. She sent us pictures and was so excited when she called. Her twin, Lillie, is now more determined than ever to get her first one too.
I love to see younguns hunt. My husband is going to take our oldest grandson rabbit hunting. I’ll make rabbit dumplins if they get anything.
I hope everyone else shares their hunting stories as I love to hear them. My papaw would sit on the porch smoking his pipe and tell his hunting stories and I would listen forever!
God bless all y’all!
Debbie read my comment about rabbit hunting with my father in law. He had 5 girls and no boys. He would joke (I think) and say any boy that dated his girls had to do one of two things- rabbit hunt or play a guitar. He would also add if he does not drive a Ford he can’t park in my yard. I considered him as being a best friend. My girlfriend, later wife, once asked me “did you come to see me or talk to my Daddy?” We would be talking about hunting, tractors or something similar. I agree with you, it is a shame more young people today don’t have an opportunity to hunt and do not get taught gun safety or ethics with guns.
I have never coon hunted and don’t care for deer hunting. The hunting joy for me came from squirrel hunting with my Daddy, rabbit hunting with my Father-in-Law, and bird hunting/quail hunting with my own dogs. Back when there were still birds to hunt, I would be beside myself by this time of the year looking forward to Thanksgiving and the opening of both rabbit and quail seasons in SC. I would already be out with my dogs on these fall days but not have a gun. Now I can’t remember the last time I heard a quail calling, or saw a rabbit playing on the side of the road, but I can hardly go anywhere in my area without seeing deer. Early every morning you will see fresh deer killed by cars overnight on the main highway. Two things about coon hunting, I have the 1950 Coleman model 200 lantern my wife’s granddaddy and daddy carried with them when they coon hunted together back in the 50’s. The last time my friend tried to coon hunt on mine and my neighbors property, one of our new “outsider” neighbors called and complained to the law about the so called noise his dogs were making when they were running a coon. This “noise” was music to my ears, especially if one dog was singing bass. One other thing about Thanksgiving and hunting, I remember when the men of the family would get together on Thanksgiving morning and go hunting while the women were preparing the Thanksgiving meal. To me it didn’t get any better than this type of family time together.
Randy, we hear Bob White quail here a lot. I love to see the litluns running around. My neighbor leaves about 4 acres of ground natural and they’re drawn to the area as are many other things. I like squirrel hunting too, but it’s because I like to sit and listen to the peacefulness of the woods.
Randy,
It sure is a different world we live in. I would never dream of walking across a field on anyone’s land in these times. As a young girl, nobody had to asked. God bless
By golly, Randy, we’ve lived the same lives except that we had only rabbits and squirrels to hunt. Deer and wild turkeys were to come later in my life. Boys hunting rabbits with men and beagles on Thanksgiving mornings were special times, and the first year we were trusted with a .410 single-shot, well, that was the season we truly bonded with our dads, uncles, cousins, and older siblings.