All of us on DU grew up in so many different ways …..but we all are connected by a thread of decency.

Even when we did things in our youth we now realize wasn’t something we would do now, we grow and learn from our experiences and evolve into decent human beings. Life’s lessons and all that.

In the early morning of the day JFK was elected.

Was hearing a scrambling noise behind me when I was little.
I turned to look and it was a pheasant running straight down the middle of the street.

Unlike my dad, and his dad, I didn't enlist in the Army either. I did flirt with the Navy but they discerned right away I was an asthmatic lunatic unfit to serve, which was not something I'd confessed to. When I finally managed to graduate from college the recruiters came back and offered me a civilian job in Germany but I was already headed down another path.

I enjoyed your story. I can imagine a fishing vacation with my dad as a way to distract myself from the current political turmoil.

Dad had a heart attack and asked me to take Bonnie for a hunt. A liver and white pointer, she went on point in a stubble field. She came into view as I walked to her to flush the pheasant.
When she came into view she was looking at me, and she looked, only with her eyes, to my right. I stepped that way and the rooster flushed. A magic moment.
I also remember that it seemed like the dogs were giving me “a look” whenever I missed. I said sorry a lot.