Yesterday I was scampering across the Rockies in five different western states, running after cougars in Idaho's Hell's Canyon, wading through Oklahoma swamps after whitetail and hogs....
Today, I wake up and look in the mirror...
And there's this grey headed, grey bearded, old ugly looking guy staring back at me...
How could that have happened so quickly? Any of you have a similar problem?
Tom Kidwell
Yep! :)
"How could that have happened so quickly?"
Time flies when you're having fun.
Look on the bright side Tom. If you had lived any life other than you did you would still be waking up of a morning looking in the mirror at a "grey headed, grey bearded, old ugly looking guy" but without those great memories.
We all age, but we don't all have great memories.
TomK,
It ain't age that gets ya, it the mileage!
OkKeith
I'm a poor Ga boy who's youth is slipping away. I'm afraid I'll never be able to afford all the hunts I want to go on before I'm too old. I'm not very grey yet, but am getting there.
Tom, I'm still going to fight it every step of the way. I just wish I had those years to live over again... how quickly they have vanished.
Keith, You're right my friend... I've certainly got plenty of mileage!
Tom Kidwell
Kick that old guy out of your house and then hide the mirror. You're as young as you feel! ;)
We just have to work harder at it is all...... :rolleyes:
Yeah Tom, I fight it too. But just between you and me (don't tell anyone I said this) most times it's a losing battle.
I don't need those years back....just the legs I had at 30. :)
You're reading my mail! More inportant than ever to stay in shape to do our thing. When my summons comes, let it be in the woods.
yep...time is catching us all! just remeber this....you dont stop playing because you get old...you get old because you stop playing! :clapper:
As long as I have any strength at all, I'll be out there with my bow... and not sitting on the bench at Walmart watching people go by.
A little hard to deal with sometimes when I think of all I've seen and done... knowing I can't go back and do it again. I'll just have to thank God for allowing me to do it back then.
Yeah. I see an old guy in the mirrow as well. Pretty incongruous because I know he still behaves like a kid, bad knee and all. I do plan on going back and doing at least some of it over, albeit a little slower this time around.
It seems now like breakfast is every 15 minutes! :scared: There was a great article in Field and Stream a few years back entitled: "Only So Many..." Great read if you can get ahold of it. I'm no doubt spending more than I should on these hunts but as my friend Tippit put it: "I figure I may have only 15 years of hunting left so I'm going on as many hunts as I can"(gist). Putting some things down as some concrete numbers can really help you focus-in a good way! :thumbsup:
Curveman,
Your friend Tippit has wisdom beyond his years. Making memories. How very sad and dreary old age would be if it were not for the memories. I just had a book published, "Just Another Old Bowhunter." Writing it, stirred a bunch of old memories that I'll cherrish until I leave for better hunting grounds.
The writer Kurt Vonnegut called mirrors "leaks" because they really do have the habit of leaking reality.
I am having the same problem with my mirror.
Wish I had 2 good Knees, damn football! but I still try... :) :wavey:
Hey TomK, I know how you feel as I am a couple years older than you. I too think back to all the hunts I've been on over the last 50 some years and the buddies that have long since quit cause they "got too old". Being young at heart is the most important thing. I just came back from Bear Quest III where I was the oldest hunter there. I felt just as young as the others except when it was time to carry a bear outta the woods. ;)
As soon as my wife heals from her hip replacement, we are headed to Colorado for the 46th straight year to hunt muleys and elk. It will be a long time before I'm done as this old body would rather spend time in the woods than waste away on the porch!
Naa it's got to be the mirror try a different one! :eek:
QuoteOriginally posted by Bill Kissner:
Hey TomK, I know how you feel as I am a couple years older than you. I too think back to all the hunts I've been on over the last 50 some years and the buddies that have long since quit cause they "got too old". Being young at heart is the most important thing. I just came back from Bear Quest III where I was the oldest hunter there. I felt just as young as the others except when it was time to carry a bear outta the woods. ;)
Bill, I sincerely salute you sir! Now that's the attitude to have. I'm 66 and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Hang with it, brother!
As soon as my wife heals from her hip replacement, we are headed to Colorado for the 46th straight year to hunt muleys and elk. It will be a long time before I'm done as this old body would rather spend time in the woods than waste away on the porch!
QuoteOriginally posted by TomK:
[qb] QuoteOriginally posted by Bill Kissner:
[qb] I just came back from Bear Quest III where I was the oldest hunter there. I felt just as young as the others except when it was time to carry a bear outta the woods. ;)
Bill, I sincerely salute you sir! Now that's the attitude to have. I'm 66 and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Hang with it, brother!
TomK,
Any relation to Dr. Jay Kidwell?
Pushing 60 and still feel like I am 25 but my body disagrees sometimes,LOL.
Danny
Hello Danny! Jay and I talked for a short time 25 years or so ago, and concluded that if we were related, it was distant.
PS: Your book left here first thing this morning. Let me know when it arrives.
Tom
Yes sir I can relate, took my grandson on his first deer hunt this past year, we were hunting some steep country, I would look behind and see him struggling and asked if he needed a short break he would say yes, while he was catching his breath I got to looking at him, wondering to myself, in a few short years he,ll be in frount asking Papa the same thing.
I cain't help growing older, but they won't ever make me grow up.
My Grandda used to end every prayer,
"One more day Lord to finish what I gotta, then another to do what I would like."
I always pray,
"Lord don't let me die stupid!!"
OkKeith
Boys, I just started over at age 61. Got a hickory self bow in April. I have flung arras nearly every day since. Broke two bows, now have a really pretty great shooting bamboo backed red cedar self bow and a mid 60's Wing recurve on the way. Never had so much fun with all my cloths on.
My hair is gray, my eyesight failing, my knees and shoulders hurt, but when I am shooting I feel just like I did when I was 16.
Reminds me of a story I wrote:
The hunter is sitting in the cabin looking out at the night and thinking of the past. He sees himself chasing a deer through the trees with his bow. He is youg and strong. When he leans back, he sees his reflection in the window. Gray hair, beard and lots of wrinkles. It startles him, "How is that, and how did he get to old".
We all walk the same path, just be glad that you are still able to hobble down that path.
God Bless you all!
acolobowhunter,
Wise words, my friend. Thank you.
I too see that old guy looking back at me.
But I do my best to ignore his aches and pains and deny his wanting to slow down and rest.
I still move like I did at 30, just not quite as long.
Don't have a gray hair on my head, as long as I shave the beard.
Can still out work my kids in there 20's, but we all know that don't take much these days.
And most of all I found a way to make the old guy look young again! (Just remove my glasses, and the wrinkles disappear!!)
And best of all, my wife says I don't look old at all, she says I'm just getting a little leathery!
I don't know.....maybe that's not a good thing. :archer:
I'm only 26 heading on 27 but i have the body of a 55 year old. Gotta love extreme sports and birth defects. But ill be out there until it all falls apart on some hillside and then ill rebuild it for one more. Good luck this season. Here's an old saying from my bmx days. Pain is temporary glory is forever. Its amazing what a few IBprophen will do.
Well boys I've been reading what ya'll have been saying and I too wonder where all those years went I also was on bear quest III and Bill K. had me by two years, I was second oldest in camp. I too felt as young as the others even when it came time to carry the bear out of the woods. THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT! Yuo are as young as you think you are grand kids do that to you. I asked one of my 7yr old grand daugthers if she was going to dance with me on her wedding day,and with a stright face she said Popa you'll be dead. Not on my watch.
I`m 43 and I feel much as I did when I was 23.
I can`t eat the way I used to, and if I go too many days in a row without enough sleep, I really feel it, but other than that not too bad.
Langer, that was too funny!
Dick,
That's pretty good! Ahhh, you have had your medication today, haven't you?
It's not the amount of miles it's how they were put on.
Turned 50 yesterday. I don't feel any different but it sure feels like something has changed. I work out quite a bit and can still wear the same cloths I did when I got married 24 years ago. With all that said though, I just really can't believe I've been on the earth for half a century!
I have a friend who was an Army Ranger in Vietnam, he's 62 and works out like he's 26. I don't set the bar that high but he sure does give me hope!
If I'd have known I was gonna last this long I'd have taken better care of myself.
:readit:
That reminds me what my Dad would tell me alot when I was a teenager. You wouldn't do that if you knew how long you are going to live. Now days he was right about alot more than I thought he was.
As they always say, "getting older is far better than the alternative"!
Dick, you'll be swing dancing with that young lady. I'm sure you can out walk and out hunt most the guys half your age!
My problem is I'm 50, look like I'm 35, but I feel like I'm 70.
Tell me about it! I was looking through some old (not that old, actually) photos while putting a story together the other day and couldn't recognize the fit, trim, dark haired guy looking back at me through the loupe. I thought I was one of my kids! Nothing to do about it except work out every day and derive some comfort from the fact that even though it takes me longer to get up the mountain nowadays, I usually see more on the way. Cheers, Don
As I set here, in my office, I look up at pictures of this young guy with a bear, elk and mulie and on the other wall there's this picture of this young guy and an older man with him and their whittail double and the old one is me! I wouldn't trade a second of my past and I thank God every day for what I've seen and done and just pray I'll have more time to do a few more of them over again.
Easier to still hunt, young fellows will drag your game out for you, no pressure to be first up the mountain, you gotta love it. The older I get, the more I hunt - getting those rocking chair memories stored up.
I guess if I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my self....
1. Keep hair cut so short you can't see the gray.
2. Exercise / work in yard hard every day. (your muscles & bones are sore and tired from the hard work and not because of your age.)
3. Your pace is slower in the woods not because of age but because you have learned (the hard way no doubt)that you see more game by moving slow and taking your time.
4. The blurry vision isn't from age it's from all the sweat dripping in your eyes...
5. Finally remember, "Today is the 1st day of the rest of your life".....
where there is a will there is a way!
Quick question, does anyone know of a retirement home just for bowhunters?
I don't feel as old as that other guy in the mirror and recent photos must be in gray scale I don't even know that guy.Tonight I start 11 PM to 11 AM for seven days. That usually adds a couple years by the end of the week. I usually try to shoot a few arrows every day just to relax though.
Mike Lee
You guys were saying what about gray hair, and gray whiskers??????
(http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s331/selfbow19953/100_0320R.jpg)
(http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s331/selfbow19953/002.jpg)
It's bad enough to look in the mirror, but at work, I'm Methusala, Father Time, or Moses. All the little kids think I'm Santa.
Gray hair ain`t a problem for me its NO hair.I`ve slowed some but can still walk most of these young fellers down in the swamp.RC
I'm with ya! Old just sneaks up on ya!
Atleast you still have still have hair. I'm losin mine.
This is a good thread. Makes you realize that we are all in this together. I am about to turn 61 and have been shooting the recurve for over 35 yrs. Shoulders can't take quite as many arrows as they used to in practice, but they still seem to find the mark.
God Bless All of Us!!!
Dang it's nice to know I'm not alone! You guys have even cheered me up, or at least I don't feel as bad. Hope we cross paths some day, and I hope the elevation of our paths is a tad under 10,000 feet. Thanks again
Tom Kidwell