Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 4

early, but eventually earned a GED.
After leaving school, Uncle Blair tried
to join the Army. Family legend was
that he was so skinny he was turned
down by the Army recruiter in Pittsburgh because he didn’t weigh enough
to qualify. He was about two pounds shy
of the required weight and the recruiter
wouldn’t budge on this requirement.
He promptly found a store that sold
produce. He ate five pounds of bananas,
returned to the Army recruiting station, stepped on the scale and joined
the Army. The rest is history. Uncle
Blair served in the Korean conflict and
the Vietnam War. Altogether he served
21 years in the service of our country.
During my early years, I didn’t know
Uncle Blair very well. Every few years
he would show up for a few weeks then
disappear again. After returning from
Vietnam, he and my aunt were stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland. This
allowed them to come home to Greene
County on long weekends, holidays
and during furlough. About this time,
they began staying at our house when
they were “home on leave.” When
he was home, we got to stay up later
than usual, listening to stories of my
mother’s family living in the hills of
Somerset County and how things happened in the old days. We heard stories
about the places Uncle Blair had been
stationed and people he had met. We
heard a lot of interesting tales, but we
never heard much about his involvement in the two wars in which he had
been a participant.
In 1971 Uncle Blair was honorably
discharged from the Army. He retired
and returned to Greene County. While
looking for a house and a new job, my
uncle and aunt stayed with our family
for a couple of months. It was during
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this time that I really came to know
and appreciate Uncle Blair. I learned
that he enjoyed life; he worked hard
and was very proud of his service to
our country. If he told you something
you could count on it. If he liked you,
he would do anything for you, and if he
didn’t like you, it was best if you just
stayed out of his way.
Sometime during the period that
they stayed at our house Uncle Blair
came to realize that this 15-year-old
boy desperately wanted to go hunting,
but had no one to take him. He said he
had hunted some when he was a boy,
but was never very good at it. He had
not been hunting in many years. After
he thought about it he announced that
we would go hunting on opening day
of small game season.
I had taken a Hunter-Trapper Safety
Course earlier, so we both went out
and purchased hunting licenses. About
the only other preparation we took
was to purchase a box of shells for the
shotguns we would be using, along
with two fluorescent orange vests and
hats. Uncle Blair would use my dad’s
Western Field (from Montgomery
Ward) bolt action 16-gauge shotgun.
For many years, I thought this was a
Stevens shotgun, however, a few years
ago I learned that it is a Kessler shotgun, made in Pennsylvania in the early
1950s. I still have this shotgun.
I would use my H&R Topper
20-gauge single-shot. After purchasing the shotgun shells, we went down
to our garbage dump (yes people still
had dumps), and fired the 16-gauge to
make sure it still operated properly. We
were set for opening day.
I do not remember the date, but it
seems to me that at the time opening
day for rabbits and pheasants was the
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Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013

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