FRIENDS REMEMBERED , WHILE I STILL CAN REMEMBER EM.....

[DAVID L EITUTIS]

BACK when  I was a young married man I came to Troy Grove, the birthplace of my wife of 42 years now.. I was at the post office one day getting my mail , no home delivery , then or now. There was an older man leaning against the counter talking to the post master , later found out his name was Oscar Hansen. OOOOOOOOOOOld Sweede and a heck of a hunter . Used to hunt fox for the bounty back in the early 60's here. A set of ears turned in would fetch ya $2.50 back then. Had to turn em in at the local county seat , Court house at Ottawa Illinois....

  Any way taking the long way around the barn here........ Oscar and I became close friends , and close was only a relative term with Oscar. He was a lifelong bachelor and devout hunter of most everything that either flew, crawled , or ran. HIs favorite guns were an old Model 12 Winchester with NICKEL STEEL, he always made a big deal outta that fact. His rifles were an Old Remington 722 , cal .222. and also a newer Remington 700 in 17 Remington cartridge....... Also had a Remington 541 S and it shot terrific for a light rifle. I shot all of his guns at one time or another....

   Oscar was frugal by most folks standards today. He had oooooold fishing gear for Bullheads up the creek, close to Troy Grove . He'd grab a can of worms and off he'd go for the ole fishing hole in the spring. When he'd get the bucket home he'd clean em all and put them into bulk packs for freezing for the long winters here. When the cat's needed feeding they'd all hover round his back door in the morning and he's simply chop off some bullheads from the big square they were frozen in and throw em out the back door for the kittys , as he used to call em. They actually weren't kittens in any sense of the word , but mangy looking scruffy alley cats.Anyway they ate good and the kitty's appreciated em I"m sure.

  Ole Oscar would pile up lots of bullheads and freeze em for the up coming winters here and the cats never went hungry , nor Oscar for that matter either.

   When ya went into Oscars old place it was like a step back in time......... In his kitchen which was the first room you entered , he had an old stove with a seemingly never empty pot of water boiling for instant coffee for anyone who dropped by. Mainly me cause not many other people visited him on a regular basis like I did.The distinct and pungent aroma of walnuts always hung in the air throughout the house because he was always cracking walnuts for some thing to snack on in the evenings.
   We were great friends , and of course now his memory is all that lingers in my winters of thoughts here and often think of him and his big ole belly and weathered face. He hunted Indian artifacts in the spring and often would come home with bushel baskets full of flint and pieces of arrowheads and once in a while would find a Folsom Point, Bird Point , or even a spear tip once , THAT WAS HIS PRIZED PIECE ABOVE ALL OTHERES.....
   HE WAS MY MENTOR , AND FRIEND , and I miss him....

[Jim Gronaw]

Wow...what a dedication. Old friends stay close to the heart.

[dick tabbert]

Great write up Tooty. Nice being able to go back in time and remember all that stuff that made us what we are today. I often reminisce about the good old days sometime wondering how I even survived some of the things I done. Thanks for the group Tooty I've got lots of enjoyment from it very interesting reading.