...story about growing up during the great depression and which enlightened me about the philosophy of the local region.
This being a highly wooded area, and food being otherwise difficult to come by, much of the local population was sustained through the consumption of wild game. Hunting with firearms requires ammuntition which doesn't come for free, so their was a strong emphasis on making the most efficient use of the ammunition that you could afford.
The old man who told me the story was out hunting with his older brother. To make sure that they were not wasting any ammunition, their parents had only given them each a single cartridge. By the end of the evening, the old man had not seen anything and had not used his cartridge. He returned to location where he was to meet his brother. His brother returned a little later having killed a rabbit and they started to walk back home.
On the way, they ran into a grizzly bear who charged upon seeing the tasty rabbit. The old man's older brother refused to reliquish the much needed rabbit meat and both brothers ran away from the charging bear. As they entered a clearing, with the bear on their tail, they ran into a rabid bull that charged coming from the other direction. The old man yelled at his older brother asking for advice on whether he should use his single bullet to shoot the bull or whether he should the bear. His brother yelled back, "Shoot the bear, we can always shoot the bull later..." |
