Al Hansen
Well-known member
In your lifetime, I would only hope that you had the opportunity to experience some of the things that have happened to me when I was growing up. More than once I have thought of the timing and how perfect it all seemed to be. Being raised in the early 1940s was the best as far as I was concerned.
I look at young people today with their lives filled with wonderful gadgets. Are they better off—I think not. Why? That brings me back to grade school especially in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Yes, I know that the desks I sat in still had the hole cut in the wood top just for the ink bottle yet we never used it for that. Back in the late 40s and early 50s being in grade school was a kick for sure. Where else could you have so much fun? We cherished the moment to be out on the playground so that we could take out our jackknives and play those marvelous games. No one ever got hurt, not one of us had our knives taken away from us during the day because we always kept them in our pockets when not out at recess. Ah, the learning game was always there and every one of us knew what the word, “consequence” meant.
So, back then my gadget of choice was a jackknife. My father had given me one just like his dad did for him. It seemed to be a traditional thing.
This brings me to Alaska when I was a young man of 25. Of course the gadgets had improved in many ways, with modern technological advances it seemed like every day something new was being invented. However, my gadget of choice happened to be a Gerber skinning knife then. I found out what it was like to be involved as a big game hunter. It was not that I was a big game hunter but that I hunted game that seemed big, like a bull moose for example or maybe a Kodiak brown bear.
On one particular hunt which took place in 1972 while Dall sheep hunting, I found out something very special. So unique that in today’s world it now becomes almost a thing of the past without many people ever thinking of it and if they did, they would probably wince, have convulsions or worse yet not know what to do. Yes, it comes back to those gadgets that all the young people have and use. You, know, like having a phone up to your ear all the time, or walking around aimlessly while texting with your very “smart” phone, maybe walking out into traffic or going nose first into a pole. Those ever lasting sounds of traffic with horns blaring, jets flying overhead, and of course the phone ringing or your very “smart” phone giving you that signal that you have a text message to read, seem to command our attention to the fullest extent now.
Why do I mention this? How many people today have ever experienced complete or total quiet? I admit that it is much more difficult because just in our country since I grew up, there are at least 160 million more people all vying for their spot! It, sound and the lack of it, is unique and unforgettable. While I was on my 15 day sheep hunt in the Alaskan range, I never saw another person, heard an airplane or even a distant shot from a rifle. There was no traffic din, nor cell phones letting me know of a call or recent text message. The only sounds that I experienced back then would have been the winds blowing through pine trees, a lone wolf howling in the evening as the sun was setting, maybe some birds singing and yes, even the butting of heads when Dall rams were showing their dominance. That sound seemed to reverberate throughout the valley I was in. It was back then that reading the adventures of some of the naturalists, like Audubon, Muir, and Sheldon gave me the true meaning of what I was finally experiencing.
I loved every moment of that serene silence that only Nature can give you. Where else could you find yourself in a spot where the night sky was so dark that the stars literally seemed to leap out at you—almost at touching distance? Where else could you find yourself immersed in a backdrop with a bull moose grazing on willows sporting a rack that was easily 75+ inches wide. There were no sounds but they didn’t need to be there. The lack of it had me engulfed. That made me one very fortunate guy to have been able to find out what it was like.
Al