The Campfire

It has become a tradition among the small group I deer hunt with to gather at the farm the night before the season opens for a cookout. We take turns buying steaks and we feast as we talk about our lives, reminisce about previous hunts and talk about the coming hunt. Our conversation is peppered with good-natured ribbing; each of us convinced that this is the year one of us will take a trophy even though none of us hunt for a trophy, merely to put venison in the freezer.

We build a campfire as darkness settles over the land and the wind turns cold. Marshmallows become the featured food of the evening as our time of fellowship continues; the flickering flames providing the only light around save for the meager light of the moon and the stars. The coyotes provide the only sounds other than the sounds of our voices and the crackling of the logs in the fire.

Our conversations are not really about what we have harvested in the past as much as about the times we have spent together in previous seasons and around previous campfires. We tell and retell the same stories year after year.

Periodically, one of us has to head behind the barn to "check the water levels" in the field. The sounds of critters scampering to get away fill the quiet as we leave the fire's dim circle of light and walk into the surrounding darkness.

The conversation slowly grows more scarce as we sit looking into the dying fire; each of us contemplating the weekend ahead. Eventually, the fire burns down and we make our way to our trucks to head back to the hotel in town where we will spend the night; another campfire now part of our deer hunting tradition. One that will become part of future years' stories.

I look forward to this annual tradition; the anticipation for the next campfire beginning even before the coals have cooled from this one. Matthew has missed the last four seasons while in college.

This year he will be back; sitting beside me, staring into the dancing flames, contemplating the coming hunt and building memories that will be the foundation for stories around future campfires.