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TT: Re: First-Time Foresters

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 Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 14:17:52 -0600
 From: dstaples <dstaples@livingston.net>

Alright, if you insist.

I grew up running kind of wild in the Missouri Ozarks.  On a river
called the Merimac, runs into the Mississippi.  Learned to hunt, fish,
camp and enjoy the great outdoors by being their every free minute that
chores and school would allow.  Knew the names of some of the trees,
could make a meal most days in the woods. (Wont tell you that robins are
terribly tough, anyway you cook them!)  A regular Rolf of the Ozarks.

At about 13 or 14 we moved to the (shudder) big city in north St.Louis
County as my father followed his work.  I continued to hunt and fish in
the city parks and ponds, just changed my weapons.  At the end of high
school I was told that I would go to college (first generation of our
family to do so, and there was no argument allowed).  So of I went to
the U of Mo and visited the only school that I thought would interest
me, Agriculture.  Turned out I didn't like cows, sheep, field crops, and
the like, since I had grown up that way.  But hey, there was this school
where they taught you how to make a living by being in the woods!  4.5
years later I had a degree, and Viet Nam on the horizon.  I opted out of
Viet Nam by enlisting into the Army for 3 years in Europe, and saw what
500 years of forestry could do.

Came back and went to grad school for a while (still no real forestry
type work) and then went to word as a forester for the great state of
Texas (Yeeha) and been one ever since.  I still do the world as I did as
a ten year old, but now I carry clearn water, most of my food, and
prefer the confines of an air conditioned bar, restaraunt and hotel for
my relaxation.  Thats not to say there is not a little camp meat on
opening day of deer season, or that the trout, white bass, black bass
and sac-o-lae (cajun for white perch) arent in dire trouble, when I have
the chance.

But  my world as a child was bigger, wilder, and scarier than it is
now.  I wouldn't have it any other way.
-- 
Don Staples
UIN 4653335

My Ego Stroke:  http://www.livingston.net/dstaples/


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