It’s been more than 40 years ago since I last went hunting.
I was sharing this story with a former Montezuma resident on Sunday at Star Lanes in Montezuma. I had stopped there to pick up a Pepsi and an iced tea on my home from covering the last Sunday service at the Deep River Christian Church Disciples of Christ. The church closed its doors after 134 years of ministering to Deep River and area families. I happened to meet John Behounek, a 2005 MHS graduate and school teacher in the Omaha area, who was home with his family for Christmas. We started talking football and I mentioned the dismal season the OU Sooners, my favorite team, enjoyed this year. That led Behounek to mention the Nebraska Cornhuskers, his favorite team, and coach Matt Rhule, who just finished his second year as headmaster of the Big Red school. The Cornhuskers finished 7-6 and near the bottom of the Big 10. They did enjoy a 20-15 Pinstripe Bowl win over Boston College. Behounek mentioned that Rhule and company had to re-recruit the Cornhusker quarterback, Dylan Raiola, in an effort to keep him at Nebraska. The portal and NIL (paying college athletes to play) have really changed the face of college football with players leaving some schools in droves for greener grass on the other side of the fence. Anyway, OU, which has lost its share of players and quarterbacks this year and last, finished the season with a record of 6-7 under head coach Brent Venables, who is in his third year at the helm. It has some Sooner fans calling for Venable’s head. I’m not so brutal as the SEC rolled out the welcome mat to OU this season. Outside of a big 24-3 win at home over Alabama, this has been a season to forget. And it didn’t help that the Sooners lost the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl game, 20-21, on a missed two-point attempt against Navy. Being a long-time OU fan and remembering the glory days of the Wishbone offense and then the mid-90s, when OU almost had to buy a win, I’m more about giving Venables another year or two. I wouldn’t want to be in his or Rhule’s shoes with all the explaining they have to do to fans and university officials. Anyway, back to my hunting story. My good friend, Rob, and I had decided to go rabbit hunting. Seems like it was around 1981. Rob had a 16-gauge shotgun and I had a borrowed 410 single shot shotgun. It was Thanksgiving weekend and we took my 1977 Monte Carlo and headed to southeast Oklahoma. We were driving along a gravel road and saw some rabbits in field. So, we stopped at the farmhouse and asked if we could hunt. “Sure,” the homeowner said. It didn’t take Rob long to bag a few rabbits. I was less fortunate in my shooting skills, but did finally get one or two. Rob was carrying the rabbits in his hunting vest. As we walked along the field, he thought it might be a good idea to gut and skin the rabbits. We had no knife, so I went and knocked on the homeowners’ door and asked to borrow one. Rob was seated on a log in the fellow’s backyard gutting rabbits and trying to skin them. I was trying not to get sick from the smell as I realized he and I both didn’t have a clue what we were doing. It didn’t help that it was misting rain and there was quite a chill in the air. I looked through the back door of the fellow’s house and saw that he was enjoying an OU vs. Nebraska football game, a Thanksgiving tradition back in the day. I remember some great games in the 1980s. I swore right then that I would never miss another OU vs. Nebraska game to be outside in the cold and rain to shoot rabbits that I would never eat. We brought the rabbits home and finished cleaning them in Rob’s parent’s kitchen. They were so full of buckshot, they weren’t worth eating. We probably should have used 22 rifles. I put several in the freezer for a later date. It must have been at least 10 years later when my mom boiled them and tossed them to the family dog. With that in mind, I do appreciate all the hunters who have killed deer, turkey and pheasants this season and I hope they enjoyed their harvests for family holiday meals. Thank you so much. Keep up the good work and I will stay home and watch a football game. In wrapping this up, I encourage you to find the positives in 2025. It’s a new year and new and good things are on the horizon. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.
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