Outdoor Adventures
Phil Taunton, Special to The Gazette
Friday, August 15, 2008
Do you remember the baseball story “Field of Dreams” with Kevin Costner?
The movie centered on a baseball field built somewhere in a remote Iowa corn field. People from miles around came to see the games and take part in the sport. A line from this film, “If you build it, they will come,” has been in my mind ever since.
I once saw a brilliant yellow male American Goldfinch on a postcard many years ago. It was perched on a sprig of a forsythia bush that was just starting to burst its buds into small flowers and create a yellow ribbon of spring glory. What a magnificent sight it was! Wifeus was somewhat of a cook, painter and artist before golf claimed her life and she was able to duplicate this picture on the top of one of those painted, varnished wooden calendars with interchangeable pieces indicating days and months. It hangs in our kitchen today. I still marvel at its beauty and what were once Wifeus’ culinary and artistic achievements every time I look at it!
I love to maintain bird feeders year round and had several Goldfinch come to the feeders that winter. An idea came to me and I planted a forsythia bush just outside the patio door to see if I could make the postcard and calendar come to life. It took a couple of years for the shrub to bloom and, believe it or not, one beautiful morning just after the Goldfinch males had turned their stunning yellow-gold mating color, I had a living picture of a male gold finch on the forsythia bush right before my very eyes.
My father passed away in the summer of 1995 and I was lost, to say the least. My outdoor adventures would never be the same. Our fishing boat was the loneliest place to be and, other than just his presence, down at the lake was where I missed him the most. One day I made a plywood stand and placed it in the front of the little V-bottomed boat where he use to sit for a bird dog or two to accompany me fishing. It’s easy to recollect ‘Old Stick’ caught just as many fish… Pop never was much of a fisherman, but her barking at fish I caught, and at Sea-Doos never held a candle to the banter Dad and I shared. We always had a good time on the water, or hunting for that matter, whether we harvested anything or not.
Time healed this emptiness and now I have two energetic grandkids to keep me company whenever opportunity presents itself. My father passed a passion to me many years ago concerning the outdoors and these kids will know our natural world. I pray the ideas I plant in their young minds and the experiences we share together will fruit into a lifetime of love for the outdoors, wildlife appreciation and respect for all living things.
And hopefully my grandson, though just seven and a half, will learn to appreciate women, especially their physical achievements in sports and the great outdoors. The sooner the better I might add. On a recent outing at Council Grove City Lake after his sister had caught two catfish and he strung the next three using my father’s old fishing pole, with a smile on his face, Peyton put his foot in his mouth (something else he learned from me) by chiming, “What’s going on in the back of the boat? Why aren’t you girls catching any fish?” Before I could warn him about the consequences of making such a statement and riling the women, Sydney, his younger sister, had a fish on! We quit counting after that. Pop would have been proud!
Got an outdoor adventure you would like to share? I'm interested in your stories. ptaunton@cableone.net