There was always a hunting-picking culture on our farm. We were on the edge of the rather famous Lima Marsh. Some farmers fought the culture. Dad tolerated it. He would sometimes rationalize that if hunters wandered around the homestead, they usually would mention if there was some problem in the back forty. Almost all of the hunters would ask permission to walk the farm. They would frequently come back before leaving and thank Mom and Dad.
There was also that "picking" part of the culture. Old Adam Mudder (sp?) was a World War One veteran. You would see him carrying a small bucket, slowly wandering through the fields and wooded groves in the neighborhood, hunting Hickory nuts. He donned blue and white bib overalls. He had a striped engineer hat and always wore a long white beard. Dad would say, "It must be Fall, there's Ol' Adam hunting his Hickory nuts." For years the old fella' was a fixture. He lived in a small little cottage on our road about a half mile south. You could see it from our kitchen window.
As well, in the late spring, people would peruse the ditches along our road to hunt wild asparagus. You had to catch it just right or as Dad would say, "It will get too woody or leggy." It was often a family affair, with a mom, dad, and kids hopping about in the weeds of the ditch clipping asparagus sprigs.
When I was 12 years old or so, responsibilities started to mount up my way. As kids with farm duties we were expected to speak to adults...like adults. One day I was standing outside at the bottom of the brick silo getting tools for my dad who was working in the empty structure getting it ready for "silo fill'n time." There was a square opening at the bottom I could interact with Dad through. Dad's voice would echo up the chute to the window. I turned to fetch a hammer for him and there stood a tall black man with a riffle strapped over his shoulder. He wore a red and black plaid wool coat. He had a hunting cap slightly tilted on his head not unlike how my own dad wore his own work hat. The man was probably around 40 years old.
"I got a coon treed up yonder in your woods, your daddy got a ladder boy?" He said with the most serious tone, yet smooth and slow.
I stood for a minute taken aback. Then I hollered down the silo chute. "There is a man here who needs a ladder to get his coon out of a tree."
There was a pause from the bottom of the silo. Then, "Well...show him the hay ladder by the grinder."
Dad never minded the coon hunters. The racoons were a menace, especially back in those days before corn cribs were constructed better. Nowadays they are solid state, harder for vermin to attack. Back then they were made of wire mesh and slatted wood allowing ventilation. Perfect for a clever racoon to use his paw to scavenge a lunch of corn. One less racoon was one less headache.
The big wood ladder still survives, sitting now in my garage, in the city. It is an enduring fixture from a bygone era. For some reason it came along on the journey of life - probably because it is useful, and....indestructible. It is about 15 feet high and made of heavy hard wood. A tapestry of paint splotches from decades past adorn its rungs.
The big black man carried that heavy ladder with gun in tow up to the woods - probably about a half mile trek. In those days we plowed the fields leaving them rough for a while before disking and dragging the earch flat. That fellow trudged over that rough plowed ground until he reached his tree and his prize.
When he brought it back, the man could have easily left the ladder on the damp ground next to the barn and silo. But, later that night when I went out to do chores, the ladder had been neatly returned to its place. It was back at its post, leaning up to the haymow ceiling hole. And, the rolling door the ladder sat behind was pulled back closed except for the small opening always left for the mousing cats to enter and exit: all was just as it was when I first showed the hunter the ladder earlier that day.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Marine Reserve Lance Corporal Dean David Opicka, 29, Waukesha, Wisconsin, was killed on Monday April 14, 2008 in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was one of two Marines killed in combat operations in Habbaniya, Iraq. Lance Corporal Opicka was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes a third Marine was wounded in the incident. The Marine Company was on its second tour in Iraq. Dean's early years were spent in Casco, Wisconsin. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Opicka was a 1997 graduate of Luxemburg-Casco High School. He played quarterback on the Spartan football team and point guard in basketball. He had also been a class officer and had done some acting in school presentations. The Website jsonline.com noted Opicka also played baseball in high school, was prom king, and in the National Honor Society. Dean would go on to Carroll College in Waukesha. The Website marinechat.com via information from the Kewaunee County News mentioned Dean also had played baseball at Carroll. He joined the Marine Reserves in July 2005. The Journal Sentinel went on to note Opicka was working as a teacher in civilian life at Wisconsin Career Academy, a charter school in Milwaukee. Opicka had hoped to teach in his old school district after his return from Iraq. He was the third Luxemburg-Casco graduate to die in Middle East since the war in Iraq started. Opicka's brother had also served in Iraq as a Marine. The Journal Sentinel mentioned Opicka was engaged to be married. He had also hoped to work on a master's degree in teaching.
The Website iraq.pigstye.net notes via information from the Green Bay Press Gazette mentions Dean had a high grade point average in high school. He graduated from Carroll College in 2002 with majors in psychology and history. He received his teaching certification in 2005, also at Carroll. Opicka was deployed to Iraq in September 2007. In civilian life he resided in Waukesha. He was due to return from Iraq in November 2008.
At the time of his death, Lance Corporal Dean Opicka was survived by his parents David and Donna Opicka; his brother Darren; and, fiancée, Katy Bonkoski. Lance Corporal Dean Opicka was the 90th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
0 American casualties to-date in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March 2011
100,142 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,889 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,444 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1513 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
866 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,051 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,681 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
104 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
29 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
146 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
