My Christmas wish for you

My daughter caught this big brown trout while fishing with me.

It's that time of year when folks make wishes. At the age of 71, it's been more than 60 years since I made a Christmas wish for some goodies I hoped Santa would dump under our tree.

Brother George and I both had bikes fairly early in our life. They were mostly rejects that other people were getting rid of when they bought their kids new ones. We clamored loud and long for a new bike, and Dad being a barber in a small town with too many barbers, told us if we'd work at it we could buy our own bike.

Such things seldom happen these days. The kids whine and their parents buy them what they want. We knew better than to whine, knowing it would do no good, and it might earn us a swat on the rump.

Don’t give kids everything they want. Make ‘em work for it.

Dad told us to grab out little red wagon, and go door-to-door and pick up old newspapers and magazines. We busted our backside knocking on doors right just after World War II, and once we collected the papers and old magazines, we'd bundle them up with baling twine and once a week Dad would take us to Flint to sell the paper for real money.

It wasn't much money, even in those days, but it we had a lot of newspapers and a bunch of slick papered magazines, we might make six or eight dollars each.

Week after week we worked hard, made money toward our bike while working at other jobs for spending money, and we finally bought a pair of new Schwinn bicycles with side-view mirrors, a horn, mud-flaps, fender feelers and go-fasters. Each bike was  top of the line, and back in the late 1940s, they cost over $100 each.

That taught us a valuable lesson. If you want something bad enough, work and earn the money to buy it. This story takes me slightly off the path of this blog, but it relates... trust me.

What I want now isn't something that money can buy. I can't work hard enough to make the things on my wish list come true. You see, what I want isn't what very many sportsmen are willing to give. I need people give their children time fishing and hunting,

My wish is that each of you daily readers must give of yourselves.

My goal for the last 30 years has been a matter of preaching to the choir, but in some cases, the choir isn't listening. I'm trying to help restore our beloved pastimes of fishing and hunting to the point where everyone cares about our natural resources and our children.

My Christmas wish would be for every one of the thousands of monthly hits which means at least one person has read my drivel, would take it upon himself (or herself) to teach a child about fishing and hunting. Children aren't learning these outdoor skills in school, and in some cases, some teachers are against hunting. They spend their time trying to influence our kids about their preconceived negative notions concerning hunting.

Children can learn from anyone, but parents who think they can start teaching their kids at the age of 16, are dreaming. Unless children get some positive reinforcement by the age of 10 years or age, or younger, chances are excellent they will never hunt and probably will not fish.

It's impossible to lay blame on all teachers because it's not fair and it's not true. Many teachers fish and hunt, and many work some positive thoughts into what they teach. However, I well remember a story I wrote after shooting a mountain lion in northern Wyoming with a bow.

This was a tragic wrong the teacher did to her young students.

This woman, who taught at a school in southern Michigan, made every one of her 40-some students write a personal letter to me. There were several themes, but every child wrote one of her prepared letters about why hunting was bad. I called the school, spoke with the principal, demanded an apology from the teacher or I wanted her fired.

My complaint was she wasn't being paid to push her anti-hunting beliefs off on students who were in the fourth grade. The principal agreed, and she reluctantly agreed to apologize in order to save her job. She told me she hated hunting, and I asked why she was sharing her personal hatred with the children instead of properly doing her job.

She had no answer. Sadly, there are many such teachers who are using some of their work time telling children that hunting is wrong. It's not wrong at all, and legal hunting is the best way to manage our abundant natural resources.

So ... my wish is for each of you who have children under 10 years of age to take them fishing or hunting. Spend time with them now in the outdoors, give of personal time to help educate them properly about fishing and hunting. Never make it difficult to learn, but it certainly pays to practice what you preach.

Folks, if all of you don't start doing your part soon, within 20 years you won't have to worry about it. The pastimes of fishing and hunting, as we know it today, will be nothing but a distant unpleasant memories of where we've been and why we've lost our way. It’s called apathy.

No one will do it for you. It's time for each of you to step up to the plate and take your swings. You'll know it was done right if the kids go out with you but if the kids  are more content with their cell phone and computers, you'll know you didn't try hard enough.

Just don't blame others if this happens. I can lead you along this righteous path, but I can't make you or your children spend time fishing and hunting. That's your job.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors