Two years ago, popular outdoor writer Glynn Harris published Bamboozled by a Bobcat: A Louisiana Boy’s Dirt Road Recollections. A collection of stories from his long-running weekly newspaper column, it was a big hit with readers who enjoy the outdoors and walking down memory lane.
[Read Terry Jones's review for Bamboozled by a Bobcat here.]
Now, Harris has struck gold again with a new book. Fathers, Sons & Old Guns: Stories from Under the Hickories is a collection of fifty stories that will bring a smile to your face. With such titles as “I was Yuppie Before Yuppie was Cool,” “Horror Tales of Modems, Mouses and Downloads,” and “I Remember Momma,” the short stories are an eclectic mix of humor, nostalgia, and favorite pastimes.
Harris is one of the most respected writers in his field. Four radio stations air his weekly Glynn Harris Show, and numerous publications carry his weekly Glynn Harris Outdoors column.
During his fifty-plus-year career, Harris has written for such prestigious magazines as Outdoor Life and Field & Stream and has won more than sixty Excellence in Craft awards from the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association (LOWA), the Outdoor Writers Association of America and the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association. His enormous contributions to the outdoor sports writing profession have also earned him LOWA’s Arthur Van Pelt Lifetime Achievement Award, the Sports Legends of North Louisiana award, and induction into the Louisiana Chapter of Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame.
I share a lot in common with Harris because I grew up in North Louisiana’s Piney Woods about ten miles from his boyhood home. As a result, his stories of growing up in the country and enjoying life’s simple pleasures have always resonated with me.
The book’s very first story, “Fathers, Sons & Old Guns,” made me smile. Harris tells how excited he was as a kid when he received a .410 shotgun one memorable Christmas morning, of spending time with his dad learning how to shoot it, and then the proud day when he bagged his first squirrel.
Reading the nostalgic tale took me back some sixty-plus years to my own special Christmas morning when I also got a single shot .410. I still recall killing my first squirrel with it, and for decades I was able to enjoy that special memory every time I walked by a particular hickory tree.
Another story that struck a chord was “Thoughts for Boys with BB Guns,” in which Harris tells of shooting at birds with a BB gun when he was a boy. One day, he shot at a beautiful orchard oriole and was surprised when he actually killed it. Harris was immediately wracked with guilt and never told anyone (especially his mother, who was an avid birder).
As Harris explains, “Looking through the eyes of age and experience, I feel pangs of guilt about my bird killing as a youngster . . . Back then, I didn’t know any better. That’s what we all did.”
Harris still grapples with the choice he made that day and writes, “Here it gets difficult to try and impress on youngsters to hold off on birds when their dads did it, their granddads did it, and yes, this writer did it . . . The only thing I might hope to accomplish from my confession is after reading it, some youngster might think twice about leveling down on a songbird.”
In my youth, I, too, relentlessly stalked birds with my BB gun and came to regret all of the innocent sparrows I buried under my grandparent’s house.
Fathers, Sons & Old Guns is an enjoyable book filled with interesting stories for everyone. Do you get frustrated trying to use a computer? “Horror Tales of Modems, Mouses, and Downloads” is just for you. Did you ever swim in a creek as a kid and have to watch out for snakes? If so, you’ll enjoy “Studying Snakes up close can be the Pits.” If you grew up with cousins who were your best friends, sat on the porch to enjoy the evening, picked huckleberries as a kid, or stalked dangerous songbirds with a BB gun, you will enjoy this book.
Fathers, Sons & Old Guns is a perfect gift for Mother’s or Father’s Day. It can be purchased through Amazon, or you can obtain an autographed copy by mailing Glynn Harris a check for $18 to P.O. Box 1102, Ruston, LA 71273.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An autographed copy of “Louisiana Pastimes,” a collection of the author’s stories, costs $25. Contact him at tljones505@gmail.com
