Deer Season 2021

Son and nephew both had successful hunts - thus the big smiles.

Novembers can be cold, damp and dreary, but that doesn’t interfere with the influx of hunters pulling campers and ATV’s through town to settle into the deer woods of our share of Mark Twain National Forest. Once upon a time I might have been impatient with the mini-jams at convenience store gas stations as pickups with trailers maneuver to and from the pumps, with longer checkout lines of camo-clad customers, with out-of-towners sitting in ‘my’ favorite cafe spot.

Not this year. It’s a comforting return to sights and sounds indicating our morales along with the local economy could get an optimistic nudge. Normal might be right around the corner as time marches on...or backs up...since we are in the first week of adjusting to clocks ‘falling’ back. (That’s a ritual some of us might prefer to skip. The sun doesn’t change its rising at dawn and setting at dusk. Should we?)

The entire deer season scenario - planning, closing school, erecting deer stands, discussing scrapes, rubs and ruts from tailgates and break rooms, stocking up on ammo and groceries, digging out cold weather hunting gear, checking scopes - isn’t as bizarre as it once seemed to this transplant from the city of St. Louis. What does it indicate about my assimilation to country living when I admit I now consider deer season the start of the holiday season?

The season preferred is now upon us. Shopping? No! Stalking with ammo and gun!

Wearing camo and orange and scent of musk, the hunter keeps hunted on endless run.

Camps and fires splatter the woods with fluorescent glows and bragging rights.

Some households will eat venison for months. Others will mourn freezers that are empty.

But all will dread when this time is at end. The season preferred is now upon us.