Growing up in the country in Tucker County you become a part of a close knit family of neighbors who all know each other despite living sometimes a mile or more down the road.
When I was just a child we got new neighbors that came in from elsewhere in the state for hunting seasons. Being the little kid I was I started showing up at their place uninvited all the time when they'd come in and instead of asking me to leave they fed me, took me fishing, took me hunting, and became family friends pretty much from the get go.
I remember getting off the school bus and running straight towards their place when I'd see a vehicle there before even dropping my backpack off at my own house. Over the years they taught me all sorts of card games, played football, baseball, and other sports and introduced me to eating most of the wild game found in Tucker County. Every season they'd come in with new friends from back home and every one of them was promptly introduced to the neighbor boy from across the road and one by one joined my circle of friends and the card games, football games, and baseball games we had.
Living in the country you get to experience things that city folk don't and the friends I made all those hunting seasons ago when I started hanging out with strangers with guns are still among my friends today and just like when I was a kid I still look forward to getting up and visiting or joining a card game or two every chance I can.
With hunting season approaching once more I'd like to wish all the hunters out there including my long time friends good luck and a safe hunting season as you chase those whitetails all over Tucker County and work on thinning the herd a bit.
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