11.26.05

turkey hunting

Posted in Memories at 2:26 pm by jlupu

I think it was Spring Break 1995 when Gabe and I headed down to Destin Florida, and on the way down we passed through Montgomery. I’ll never forget the night when the whole Harris convinced me to go hunting the following day. It was supposedly turkey season in Alabama, and being jewish and canadian it wasn’t too surprising that I was absolutely clueless about anything to do with hunting, let alone how to hunt turkey. I remember sitting in the living room with the whole family and Mr. Harris was practicing using this odd little wooden contraption which simulated a turkey call, supposedly it was meant to attract the turkey. I couldn’t stop laughing at how mad a little device it was and that everyone in the family seemed to know how to use it, and even better that some of them could simulate the turkey mating call even without that little wooden device. Lucas sat there for ages trying to teach me how to make that darn thing make any noise that even resembled a turkey mating call, never seen anyone with his patience even after he realized I was beyond hopeless.

I remember them all telling me that turkey are real sensitive to light so we had to get out to the hunting club before dawn, dressed in full camouflage of course. Mr. Harris was waking Gabe and I up at a little after 3ish so we could get on the road nice and early. Of course, this didn’t phase me or Gabe and we went out for beers in Montgomery. We were probably was asleep for no more than 2 hours, before Mr. Harris woke us both up. This was back in the day where Gabe could sleep for 15 hours at a time and not surprisingly he was having none of it and went back to bed. I was now faced with this fear that it would be just me and Mr. Harris going hunting at that ridiculous hour. But there was Lucas, crawling out of bed, hopping into the pickup truck to come along. It was like he just knew I couldn’t go it alone. Now in fairness it was pretty early and when we got to the hunting club he bailed on me and crashed in the lodge but I’ll never forget that whole day with Lucas and Mr. Harris.

Every time I hear a cool southern accent, every time I think about Gabe’s bumper sticker on his pick-up truck in college “American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God”, I think of Lucas, I think of the Harris family and how warm and outgoing they were to me all those years.

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