Chris Maroldy
I want to state unequivocally that this *might be* my favorite time of year. (I know … I know… I’m just playing.)
Keeping in mind Helene’s storm victims in the Carolinas, the weather is generally gorgeous, and there’s a pep in my step each year that’s noticeably lacking in the dead of winter and the depths of summer.
Deer season is in full swing for me (with bow and gun in some places), the fishing picks up considerably, squirrel season opens, and unsold Oktoberfest beer goes on deep discount. Life is good.
Yeah, you have to put up with the pumpkin spice insanity (which started around Labor Day this year if you were paying attention) but if you’re like me, the actual arrival of Halloween on a hard, non-artificial date that has nothing to do with the corporate marketing calendar makes up for it.
My favorite holiday?
All that said, I used to be guilty of trying to gin up seasonal enthusiasm out-of-season, too.
Back in the day, before Facebook finally drove a stake through its heart, there was an internet bowhunting forum I was quite active on. One year, the boys volunteered me to initiate, organize and run a friendly deer contest. It was for bragging rights only and encouraged taking does (a good management practice for most areas) while downplaying horn porn.
It was mainly an outlet for the guys to talk trash and have some fun with each other, and we probably did it for seven years or so before the forum started taking its last gasps.
The thing is, no matter how enthusiastically the contest was received in primetime (October and November) it was like pulling teeth each year to get the guys cranked up about it in July and August, when I’d start sign-ups. No pep in their step that far ahead of most season openers.
That was a bit of a revelation to me. South Carolina has some deer seasons that open mid-August. It’s a prime destination for traveling hunters looking for an early buck in velvet. California and other places out west and on the far coast have August and early September seasons. But I guess if you weren’t hunting those seasons, you weren’t all that hot and bothered to play deer games until your own season started, even if you did advertise yourself as a hard-core hunter. And I have heard some hunters poo-poo velvet antlers.
But my internet audience *was* more hard-core than most, even for bowhunters. It was a little disappointing.
And it wasn’t about being pro-contest or anti-contest, or apathetic to contests. Boy, you should have seen the flood of people trying to sign up mid-contest, when folks finally got tuned in. Cyberspace “friends” you hadn’t heard from since Christmas suddenly came out of the ethernet bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, raring to chase them whitetails when the weather cooled and their Midwestern or Northeastern seasons arrived!
So I’m convinced that even though I might be a year-round deer nut, most people
are not, even my die-hard buddies. And when you’re a cheerleader, like I am, it’s sometimes difficult to accept that not everyone’s down for the rah-rah.
Each year starting when SC seasons opened in August, I’d post pictures of hunters and their deer that I received from friends or that I lifted from various websites covering the Carolinas (and sometimes Virginia!). The response was crickets until the boys started paying attention around mid-October.
The only exceptions were when the hunter pictured was a good-looking woman (as you can imagine) or a youngster. If the kid had killed a really good buck, most of the comments were along the lines of “It’s all downhill from here, poor kid.” Which may be true.
I know it was all uphill for me, starting out. Lots of trial and error, but I enjoyed the challenge. Not sure that explains anything about my being a cheerleader, unless it’s something about wanting to see other people enjoy what I enjoy. But I burned out on strangers’ deer while subscribing to North American Whitetail thirty years ago, so I get it about not getting pumped up for other people’s hunting seasons.
However, the air *is* crisp and the bucks are hard-horned. It’s *time* to be pumped.
Rah Rah!