doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stuff you wish you did

a useful adage....no one lies on his deathbed and wishes he had spent more time at the office.

best regards,

tom

A I have become older my wish I had done or could do list has become very short in fact it is down to four one old one from life's middle distance and a couple of resent ones.
The oldest and in its way hurts still. My Farther slipped of his mortal coil when I was seventeen, so I really did not know him as a man in the way my sons talk to me as men, he of course missed out as well.
The middle one is that I had sons though I did want a daughter. Though my wife and I did decide that we did not want to enter Baby sex lottery. But now I have a daughter in law the same age as a daughter would be with the bonus of a grand daughter.
The more up to date two, I wish I could still could drive an Automobile but with my eyesight it would be carnage , and tongue in cheek I wish I could see my last birthday again.
This is very maudlin how about a change to the things I was glad I was there or I did that!!!
I will start wit two the two times in my life when I was there when history was being made. The first time was in Liverpool during the 1960s music revolution Cavern club, those four young men with those strange haircut's and all that went with it. Though at the time I did not know that I was in the middle of history being made.
The other time was I was in Berlin the day the people of East Germany climbed the wall and the police opened Check Point Charlie to allow the flood of people in to West Berlin. I still have some pieces of that Berlin wall in my study, and just between our selves I have never been kissed by so many women ever but dont tell my wife I enjoyed it also I did know history was being made.

I am humbled by that statement, my friend, and I realize I grew up in, and live in, a nirvana for an outdoorsman. That realization is most likely responsible for my lack of desire to now travel to far away places. I just, plain and simply, love home.

Taken from our dock on the Savannah River, two miles from my home, Saturday evening.

CZ, since your thread has morphed some in these couple of days I guess I will contribute what I knew immediately when I first read your request but didn’t want to put into words. What would I still like to do?

Anything. Anything at all with our late son.

And one more quiet morning in the canoe with my last best fly fishing friend.

I accept that neither of these will ever happen again.

Hopefully most of us have known a friendship in life of such kindred thought and values and aesthetic that just time together doing what we love is the highest reward. Strangely, now, our friendship has been sealed by common loss. As we grieved the anniversary of our son’s death, word came that his son had ended his life. Two thousand miles separate us yet we’re now closer than ever. And although it was already hard for two old guys to talk over a couple of cell phones add emotion and you get the idea. But again, somehow, we communicate as never before.

So, CZ, I wouldn’t recommend either of these experiences to you but I would commend this: treasure the relationships you have.

in the end, all we have are our stories and our relationships....and they are our finest treasures.

best regards,
tom

Memories. I clearly recall hunting with my grandfathers at age five. Clearly recall moving a six wheel truck for my fathers as he planted at an age even younger. Recall riding in a gravity wagon picking corn still on the cob and pushing it into every corner to get as much on as possible. Recall the first Saturday in October was opening day of squirrel season and no matter how busy we were with harvest I got a new box of shells and got to go hunting for a few hours before starting farm work. Recall the pure joy when I got a Winchester Model 12 in 28 gauge for my age 12 Christmas gift. Yes I would relive each of these times again but can’t. All I can do is share a few hunts, trips and times with those who follow me. A grandson needs to have clear, fond memories of his father and grandfathers.

Ernie I’m really sorry about the eyesight.

It must really have been something to see the Beatles during their formative and most productive stage.

The fall of the Berlin wall is especially memorable for me. I have had friends whose families were stuck behind it for 50 years before it was removed.

All that said, this was not a thread design to tap into group melancholia.

I really just hoped some members here might have some ideas for interesting things to do.


That’s not going to happen with this thread.

For some reason I would like to hunt alligators. I guess that's an attainable goal.

And to add to my earlier post, now that I have my 1939 M70 in .375H*H, I'd like to go to TX (by invite of course) and shoot feral hawgs--like the late Jim Rikhoff once replied to a Park Ave. society matron, when she found out, at a swanky cocktail party, that he was a Rep. for WRA "back in the day"-- why he shot big game animals- "Well lady, I guess I just like to hear the smack of bullets against solid flesh.." RWTF

I want to drive the PCH in a roadster. Maybe see the desert southwest in spring bloom followed by New England in the fall. Fly fish the storied streams etc. Lots to do. In the meantime I suppose I'll be satisfied to hunt grouse and phez in MN, again. Kansas Quail are on the docket too. Maybe deer with one of my Grandsons' or get out a couple times a week on a good trout stream here, (which I do). Don't plan, it'll eat at you. Just do, something. Time is short. MTB with both my son's this week, great, even if I used my bike like a walker a few times!