My husband and I built a small cabin on our 33 acres. We were still finishing it when two of our sons used it for the first time. We showed up to the cabin to do work on that Saturday morning and saw a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in one of the windows. The boys were both in the woods hunting.

Smoking?

My first thought was “who the Hell started smoking?”. I know they are grown boys, but I still wanted to beat their ass for smoking. We speculated and began working on the cabin.

Confrontation

The boys came in from hunting mid-day and we confronted them. The answer was so unexpected and so sentimental. The answer was that the deer always came when Papa lit a cigarette, so they thought they’d give it a try. They didn’t actually smoke any of them.

Memory

The boys have fond memories of hunting with their papas. Both mine and my husband’s fathers enjoyed having the boys deer hunt with them. The preparation would take place the whole week before opening day. We’d start with making sure we had all the clothes for them. Since they were growing boys, it would mean making sure the thermal underwear fit and ensuring we have all the equipment. We’d make sure we had food, water, and snacks too.

The day of hunting would start very early. We’d get dressed and load up the trucks, met my father or my husband’s father and travel to our hunting location. One of the boys would sit with Papa and the other with me. Whoever sat with Papa would always guaranteed to have honey buns to eat. They could sit there all morning and see nothing. Then, Papa would take a break, get up and light a cigarette. That’s when the deer would inevitably show up. Each and every time.

LOVE

Last year, the boys lost their second Papa. This year, we have a cabin and our own land for them to hunt. It was really touching to know they had honey buns to eat and had bought cigarette to light, not to smoke, but to see if it attracted the deer like it had when they were with Papa.