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Case: Keeping it quiet when we should be keeping it real

Staff file photo / We tend to focus on the more fun and glamorous parts of hunting, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case, but there's plenty of dirty work to be done once that deer, turkey or squirrel is shot — if we manage that part.
Staff file photo / We tend to focus on the more fun and glamorous parts of hunting, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case, but there's plenty of dirty work to be done once that deer, turkey or squirrel is shot — if we manage that part. Staff file photo / We tend to focus on the more fun and glamorous parts of hunting, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case, but there's plenty of dirty work to be done once that deer, turkey or squirrel is shot — if we manage that part.

By Larry Case 4 min read

Some things are just hard to talk about. They simply are.

Families have a lot of this sort of thing. Most have an incident or two that everyone knows about but no one mentions. How about the time Uncle Ed had just a wee bit too much eggnog at Christmas, fell down the stairs and knocked over the tree? Well, maybe that is not such a good example. The whole family talks about that one, except when his sister – your mom – is in the room.

I think you know what I mean, though. There are many things in life that are like an 800-pound primate in the room that we just don’t bring up in conversation. The outdoors world of hunting, fishing, firearms, bows and arrows and rowboats is no different.

Evidently even in this enlightened age there are still some things not to be discussed. Think about some of the stuff you see on outdoors-related TV programs. (I’ve told you before that I think some of them are good and a lot of them are bad.) Do you ever ponder why we don’t see any of the ladies on these shows, especially the ones who look like fashion models, up to their elbows in blood and deer guts, field dressing the big 10-pointer they just shot? (To those having breakfast or morning coffee, sorry for the image.)

Come to think of it, I don’t see many of the guys on the hunting programs doing these chores either, but maybe you see my point: Nobody is talking about it.