Entry Eleven: Sitting in the Stand

[A story in many parts: Part Three]

We arrived at the hunting lodge at 4:30 and were greeted by The Gang. Dad had been hunting with this particular core group of men for a long time and once a year they take a big hunting trip together. For the past few years they have been going out to Texas to hunt, but this year they decided to try a new place in South Carolina. In celebration of this new itinerary, they opened the trip up to The Son's of The Group. I am a Son of a Member of The Group. When my dad approached me several months ago, with the trip in the planning stages, and asked if I wanted to join them, he layered the invitation with several caveats, telling me he realized it wasn't my thing and if I didn't want to do it he would understand and he just wanted to ask and not assume that I didn't want to go. That was the “dad’ side of him speaking. The counselor side wanted to know if I would "enter his world," if only for a weekend. I'm sure it took a lot for him to ask me since the thought of seeing me cry over a dead deer was even more unsettling since we would be with all of his friends. I promised not to cry and accepted his invitation. The fact that he said he would pay for everything played into my decision, but not as much as you might think.

Okay, maybe that much, but I was still looking forward to it.

All words and images ©2005/J. Colle