HoneyComb
ChurchofGod

I remember many nights walking by moon light when I was young. I loved to walk along an old road or path and watch the star formations while the moon was giving me enough light to see without any problems. Some of these nights were while I was coon hunting listening to the dogs run and watching the beautiful sky.

I would have time to reflect on how big the creation really is and learning the bark of each dog. Most of the time we would have a certain dog that would open up on a trail first and the rest would join in.

We would rush over hills and down hollows to stay in hearing of the dogs and when they finally treed, we would make our way to them. We would find the coon in the trees with our lights and shortly afterwards we would be on another chase.

Some may wonder why on earth anyone would do this. It was a way of life for many when I was growing up. Nothing was ever wasted the coon was cooked and the hide was sold for clothing or coats to be made.

I still like sitting out watching the moon climb high into the sky or going down either one. I still look at the stars and wonder about why God formed each one of them. I have not coon hunted for years; it seemed after I got married, I was too busy working and raising my children.

My son come to me one day and told me he wanted to start hunting. I told him alright; we are going to learn the right way. I bought us a couple shotguns with slug barrels to deer hunt with and a regular barrel for other hunting. Each year we spent quality time together. We usually filled our deer tags the first morning of each season. We would check them in and head to the River Restaurant to eat a good fish lunch. Later we would process our meat.

Adam learned a lot about how I grew up hunting and supplying meat for the table. He was taught not to take anything he was not going to eat. That was a principle I was raise by. I am still that way today. The old saying waste not, want not has a lot of merit in it.

I think about the days we would have to carry water to the house to wash clothes. We didn't have running water for years and really didn't miss something we didn't have.

That was the days a water bucket was set on a table or cabinet top with a dipper in it. Everyone drank from the same dipper, and no one thought any think about it. Those days are long gone, but they held great value for me. I feel like I appreciate what I do have today, because of what I didn't have in the past.

I have countless stories I could tell and probably will as time moves forward, about my early days.

Sometimes I just feel like writing my thoughts and I guess this is one of those times.

Written by Harold E. Miller