“What’s the problem. You walked your way in here, didn’t ya?”– Joe McManus

 

Words of wisdom from my Uncle Joe, spoken from somewhere in the middle of a cold, wet, black, New Jersey swamp one late night during our many hunting adventures when I was a young teen. He kept leaving me behind and out of flashlight range as I dodged the brush and sticky things, and I asked him how he thought I would ever find my way back if I lost him.

Joe loved running his fox hounds, and his ruffed grouse, his bird dogs, and deer, and all things brambles, and swamp.

To him the answer was as plain as the nose on your face, which of course you could not see. It was always about self-reliance and accountability, for Uncle Joe.

For the greatest uncle a young boy could ever have. May He Rest in Peace forever, high in an oak tree of the Virginia hardwoods, with a recurve bow close at hand.

 

 

“A man’s character is defined by, and revealed in, the outdoor life”. – Michael Patrick McCarty