AmmoLand.com

By Dr. Paul Kengor

Goodbye, America - More Recollections of Deer Seasons Past

The Center For Vision & Values

Grove City, PA - -(Ammoland.com)- Last week I wrote an article on Deer Season a half century ago, focusing on my grandmother’s town in the mountains of Emporium, Pennsylvania.

Each year, my grandmother and other households opened their doors and kitchens and beds to perfect strangers who came to town to shoot a deer—and there were no problems.

The piece was about more than Deer Season. It was about America, our culture, and how much this country and its people have changed.

The article really struck a chord, running in publications from the AmmoLand Shooting Sports News to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Especially interesting were the responses I got, with numerous readers weighing in with their own recollections. I thought it worthwhile to share a few of my favorites here:

From Sugarbare:

“Back in the ‘60s, we left our guns in the cars parked at the high school so that we could immediately head for the woods as soon as school was out. Those who drove to school would store guns for those who were dropped off at school…. Yep, hunting season was an event.”

From Buzzard:

“When I was in the second grade, I took my dad’s old .38 pistol to school for show-and-tell. Now days they would call in the SWAT team for a kid with an empty shotgun shell. What happened to our country?”

From Vdroddy:

“Even in the 1960s and ‘70s, in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, we brought our hunting rifles to school just before Buck Season to show them off.”

From a Grove City College graduate, class of ’67:

“I grew up about 20 miles from Emporium, Pennsylvania. You’ve described this area perfectly. What struck me about your article was the general trustworthiness—trusting [armed] people coming into your home. These men just wanted to hunt. When I was a kid, we used to go to the middle of town where there was a weighing station on the first day of Deer Season. We would all gather around to see who got the biggest deer. Everybody was there. We used to take our guns to school. After school, some of the teachers would hunt with us. They would drive deer for us. There was never any problem. Can you imagine that today? Those teachers would be arrested!”

From a faculty colleague:

“My grandfather had this hunting cabin…. Twenty guys would stay there. My uncle shot a deer once, brought it back to the camp, got drunk, and passed out. The group left for home the next morning without him. But he had this motorcycle he kept up there—with a sidecar, which was WWII surplus. He was also town sheriff. So he stuffed the deer in the sidecar, head straight up, and drove all the way home. Simple people who had each other and their time together. Makes me happy and sad.”

From Rick from Mount Joy:

“Your article really took me back. My grandfather, father, and uncles built a cabin down the road from Emporium in Sinnemahoning in 1947. This is the first year that the cabin stands empty during Deer Season. Time passes but my memories of that area will never fade.”

From an editor in Washington state:

“[Your] column really puts into perspective the changes we’ve experienced, from being a country of neighbors we could count on and trust, to the society we live in today where many people don’t even know who their neighbor is across the alley, let alone trust them with anything of value.”

From a “tired” mom:

“Okay, Paul, so here’s a sad story: After Hurricane Katrina, my husband went down to the Reliant Center in Houston to help out with all the folks being sheltered there after the levees gave way in New Orleans. I told him, ‘If anybody wants out of there, bring them home with you.’ We live in Ohio. He could not find one person—out of hundreds—who wanted to leave the chaos of the Reliant Center, not even for a few days. (We had the means to fly them to Ohio and then, after that, we’d have flown them anywhere they wanted to go.) And why did nobody want to leave? Because rumors were that the government was going to reissue welfare checks that had been lost in the flood, in addition to providing FEMA handouts. They were willing to stay in a hell-hole in order to get a few bucks from the government, rather than trust in a kind stranger extending a hand. It is a sad world in which we live.”

There’s not much I can add to this.

Dr. Paul Kengor

Yep, America has really changed—sadly, for the worse. This nation and its people and culture will never be the same, and that’s too bad.

Dr. Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values. His books include “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” and his latest release, “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.”

Filed under: Featured Articles, Gun Rights News, Hunting News by Ammoland No Comments »

By Dr. Paul Kengor

Deer Season a Half Century Ago

AmmoLand Gun News

Grove City, PA --(Ammoland.com)- This week hunters across America storm the woods loaded for deer. For yet another indication of how times have changed, consider this account of Deer Season a half century ago:

My mother’s family lived in Emporium, Pennsylvania, as did dozens of their relatives. Emporium is a tiny town nestled in the mountains near the north/central part of the state. Back in the 1940s, when my mother was born, my grandmother had worked as a Rosie Riveter at the Sylvania plant. Some reading this article will remember owning a huge, heavy Sylvania TV—back when you got only three channels.

Sylvania employed half the town. Farming was another means of employment, which my grandfather and his parents and nine siblings had done down the road in Rich Valley.

Still, neither Sylvania nor farming nor anything else did much to populate tiny Emporium.

Once a year, however, the place was flooded with people. That time of year was Deer Season, when out-of-town hunters arrived like an incoming Army, loaded with rifles and bullets. “Army” is a good metaphor, given that a large portion of the hunters were World War II vets.

They came from the mills and mines of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. They came to shoot a deer.

During that special week, Emporium’s streets were bustling, the bars were jammed, and churches had more people than usual, including St. Mark’s, where hunters sought out the priest for a blessing before heading into the woods.

The lone hotel was full, leaving hunters looking for lodging. Some packed into makeshift hunting camps. Some slept in their cars. Sleeping in a car was no big deal to guys who had fought in Germany, France, the Battle of the Bulge. Nonetheless, they searched for a place with a roof, heat, a bathroom—which brings me to my main focus:

My grandmother always took in boarders during Deer Season. In fact, the whole town did. Up and down every street, hunters knocked on doors asking if the home was taking boarders. Bear in mind, these were complete strangers carrying guns and lots of ammunition. And yet, there was never any fear that they were a threat to a household.

“I never heard of any problems anywhere,” recalls my mother, who was a little girl when the hunters stayed at her house. “There was never any concern about the safety of anyone, including the kids. Today you can’t trust anyone. It was different then.”

It was very different. There was also a general trust of hunters, a trust I believe is still merited and shared in those areas. My Uncle Carl, my mom’s brother, says, “I still think that hunters are a special breed and even though they kill animals most are very caring, trustworthy, and law abiding.”

My uncle remembers my grandparents taking in so many people that he lost track.

“During hunting season our house was a zoo,” he says.

For a few dollars per person, my grandparents hosted two or three hunters per night, giving them a bedroom and maybe the backroom. The hunters marched inside with all their gear. As evening fell, early in the winter, my grandmother made dinner for everyone. They all shared a meal. The hunters talked and played and joked with the kids. After dinner, they got their equipment in order and went to bed—snoring loudly through the night.

Around 5:00 a.m., my grandmother made breakfast for the hunters, typically bacon and ham and eggs.

The meals were special. “I enjoyed the stories at night and breakfast in the morning as much as the hunting,” says my uncle.

Then they were off to the woods. If they shot a deer early, some headed straight back to Pittsburgh, hoisting the gutted carcass atop the Oldsmobile. Others, if they got a deer late, might return to the house, where my grandmother cooked up some venison. If they had no luck, they stayed another night or two.

Dr. Paul Kengor

This scene was repeated in house after house in Emporium. My Aunt Della, who lived across the railroad tracks and river, took in boarders in an apartment above her garage. She tended to get the same guys year to year. I’m sure her Rigatoni and meatballs were a factor.

Can you imagine this today? Any of this? Yes, the culture has really changed. America has changed.

Dr. Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values. His books include “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” and his latest release, “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.”

Filed under: Gun Rights News, Hunting News by Ammoland No Comments »