Thanks for the reply, buzz. No problem in feeling the way you do. I just wanted to try to understand.
Objects trigger memories for me that otherwise may not surface. That gold watch, for example. When Grandaddy was 14, in 1906, he walked to Stoney Bluff Landing on the Savannah River, near here, and caught a steamboat to Augusta. When he disembarked it he walked down to Broad Street and went to a jeweler, where he bought that watch and had his initials engraved upon the lid. Returning home on the steamboat he tried to sleep, but said all he could hear all night was the ticking of that watch. I still remember the twinkle in his eye retelling that.
I wish I had his 1897 pumpgun. He said he got rid of it because he wore it out shooting ducks, doves and quail. A younger hunting friend of his, after his passing, once related to me that Grandaddy once killed 13 birds on the rise with that gun, out of a single covey. He said the dog pointed, but Grandaddy saw the covey well ahead of the dog and shot into them on the ground, then as the rest got up he shot until empty. He killed 7 on the ground and 1 with each of the remaining shells in the gun, for a total of 13. They were meat hunting, and there were bountiful birds, so I don't belittle him for doing that. But, I'd sure like to have the old gun that did it. It might be worn out and unsafe, but it'd never go to a gun buy-back.
Anyway, have a fine day, brother. SRH
