By Loyde Childs |
| It had been a clear day
in early November and a few afternoon clouds were starting to
block out the sun. With the lack of sunlight I found myself scrunching
my head down into the back of my parka. The light wind that a
few moments earlier had felt nonexistent was now picking up and
the temperature was dropping. The time had come to call it a day and start bringing in the decoys from the pond. I proceeded to pull up my hip boots and re-attach the loops to my belt. The cold penetrated the inner layer of my clothing before the snaps on the loops were secured. I was walking carefully into the pond carrying a long stick to hook the strings of the decoys. After retrieving several, one became snagged on something below the surface of the water. As I moved to free it the water became deeper and my right foot sank and water started rushing over the top of my boots. The squeamish feeling of frigid water was running down my legs. Soon |
water was waist deep (don't get ahead of me here) and my butt felt like ice cubes had been stuck down my pants. Fortunately, I had remembered to put my license in a special wallet in a zip lock bag in my breast shirt pocket and it didn't get wet
Many times when either hunting or fishing my wallet and all the contents became completely soaked. On several occasions I would spend an evening by the stove and arrange all the items from my wallet to dry. Ex |
perience has taught me
to take better care of my wallet and my licenses. Licenses are a part of life and we don't normally think about them unless we need one or lose one. Most people understand that they must have one to do just about any activity regarding hunting or fishing. If you are a "James Bond" aficionado you know how he likes his martinis and that he has a license to kill. The thought of this is rather overbearing until you realize that the purchase of a hunting license gives you the right to do the same thing. Several years ago, after my mother's passing, I found a Wisconsin hunting license issued to my grandfather dated September 1st 1899 in her personal effects. I had never met my grandfather because he died in 1913. I was curious to know why it had been retained because my dad was not a hunter nor did he ever mention his dad to be a hunter. The only rational I could come up with is that 1899 was the same year my father was born The license was in good condition. It is large in size (6X6 inches) and required a official seal by the county clerk of Eau Claire county for validation. After finding the license I started wondering when hunting licenses were first issued in Wisconsin. Also, what the reason was they were issued in the first place. I recently contacted the Wisconsin DNR and they provided me with a chronological history of hunting and fishing licenses. Although they didn't tell me officially the reason for issuance it could have been to control the hunting season ( September 1st, to December 31st) The first hunting licenses were issued in 1897 and were required for all deer hunters (resident $1.00 and nonresident $30.00) In 1899 a license was required for game of any kind (Residents $1.00: nonresidents $10.00 |
