Summer days are too hot for fishing and golf, but they're great to daydream about fall and deer season.
I've been doing a little of that vicariously lately through a new book titled Ten Point Memories, Stories from an Arkansas Deer Camp, by Calvin "Ernie" Marlow of Morrilton.
There's not a diplomatic way to say this, but every novice outdoor writer tries to convey a folksy rural style that translates poorly to print. Fine folks often send me this kind of stuff to review, but tortured English and references to Mamaw and Papaw, huntin' and a big ol' bucks are express tickets to the trashcan.
It sounds natural to hear people talk that way, but it looks phony and affected in print.
This book has its share of informal dialect, but the stories are so authentic and heartfelt that I feel like I know the characters.
And I do. They are my adopted family at the Old Belfast Hunting Club in Grant County, and they're the same people you'll meet at every other deer camp in Arkansas. Wherever you hunt in this great state, every page of this book puts you there.
The Ten Point Club is somewhere in south Arkansas on land it leases from International Paper Co. Yes, Pawpaw appears near the bottom of Page 1, where we also meet a cast of uncles and cousins that are identified only by their first names.
We don't need to know them any better than Marlow allows because they are his personal mileage markers in a stream-of-consciousness journey through a lifetime of autumns spent in a place that feeds his soul. His journey treats us to the same sights, scents and peculiar bends of light that so many Arkansans associate with November.
In each story, I can vividly see the pine rows and the scent of fresh and decomposing pine straw. I can hear the whisper of an autumn breeze and the oppressive quiet of a still morning. I can feel the sway of the trees that often fool me into wondering if it's my stand that's tottering back and forth.
Marlow's real gift is personalizing indistinct, nameless places and conveying the bonds of friendship and family that coalesce at his camp.
The opening chapter, "Randy's Stand," shares a morning when Marlow took three shots to kill a doe. He later missed a chance at a big buck slipping through a pine row because his rifle was leaning in a corner of the stand instead of sitting in his lap. Minutes later, a fellow named Joe missed a chance at the same buck when he failed to disengage the safety on his rifle.
Marlow got another chance at a buck shortly after, but his rifle didn't fire. Marlow had used all his ammo on the doe he killed, and he didn't bring extra.
Between shots, he read an article in an old issue of Arkansas Sportsman magazine about the influence of moon phases on deer behavior. The second buck appeared as he contemplated planning his vacations around moon phases.
I am a devout believer in solunar tables, and that made me laugh.
Chapter Two introduces us to the "Jeep Seat." It's actually a place in a hardwood stand, kind of a community spot that has been a favorite among the club members for decades.
Marlow's cousin, Cal Jr., saved a blue seat from a decrepit old Jeep Wrangler that finally expired, and he placed it in that spot so he would have a comfortable place to hunt.
The cousin died suddenly at a young age from a heart attack. His Jeep Seat remains and is now considered almost sacred.
It reminded me of a beloved member of our Old Belfast club that died way too young a few years ago. He took his own life on a summer day, sitting in his stand on a place called BB Road. It was his favorite place on earth.
In that way, every chapter of Ten Point Memories makes you reflect on the relationships you have that are bound by a common love of deer hunting, and the joy of being with those people in that setting. The actual hunting, though prominent, is merely Marlow's canvas for those reflections.
Great literature it's not, nor is it meant to be. It is, however, a genuine portrayal of the south Arkansas deer hunting culture.
It's about the most "Arkansas" thing I've ever read, and it's got me thinking about November and all that comes with it.
Sports on 07/10/2016