December 2009 Almanac
**THIS MONTH**
–December Offers Rest, Or Intense Activity, The Choice Is Yours–
True baby boomers born in 1946 remember when December passed as the lazy man’s month for outdoors activities. During December, from World War II to the early 1970s, the hunting, fishing and outdoors life in general passed slowly for folks who found this month a grand time to eat leisurely meals with fruits from the forests and water or, better yet, for many of them to sit in kitchens with friends while telling stories of past hunts and fishing successes and failures. It was indeed an unhurried time before the holidays when women did the lion’s share of Christmas shopping and other domestic chores.
Here’s a quick snapshot of outdoor pursuits in those years:
• Ice-fishing for trout and salmon didn’t start until Feb. 1.
• Coyotes didn’t arrive in full force until the 1970s, so no one hunted this wild canine until at least then, and many didn’t get the idea of sitting and calling on field edges until the 1980s.
• The fallen price of fox fur pretty much had ended hunting this canine then, often done with a trusty fox hound in those days.
• Coastal winter smelting attracted a handful of folks, but it didn’t hit full swing until the mid or late 1970s when entrepreneurs started smelting businesses in places such as Bowdoinham and Dresden.
• Muzzle-loading for December deer started in the early 1980s.
• Rabbit hunting was indeed as popular as it is now, maybe a little more, but serious hare enthusiasts needed to invest in a hound or two. Many folks lacked this commitment – then and now.
• Snowmobilers got out as soon as snow flew around their homes, but traveling north for sledding would develop in the 1980s.
• Serious photography started in the 1970s with the advent of big box stores selling discount SLR 35mm cameras and all the lenses and filters. Shooting color transparencies really took off then because box stores sold a 36-exposure roll of slides for a tad more than $1 and charged about $2 to develop them. Folks could burn lots of film – and did – at that price. Read the rest of this entry »
December … the leaves have fallen; with luck, you’ve got your deer; the snow is likely to stay.