Introduction
When people hear the term literacy they tend to think of reading and writing. I know that was my only thought when my professor was introducing us to this assignment. When she asked us for a definition I actually responded, “Literacy is the ability to read and write.” As we continued to discuss it, I realized that literacy is much bigger than simply reading and writing. My definition expanded to a person’s knowledge of a given subject. I thought that this just encompassed traditional subjects such as English, math, history, and so on. Then it hit me, literacy is your knowledge in any subject. The subject could be English, football, scuba diving, dancing, or computer programming. It could be absolutely anything in the world. A literacy narrative is your story of gaining knowledge in that subject. This is my literacy narrative in hunting.
My story needs to begin with a bit of background on my family. My dad, his brother, and my grandpa have been going down to Missouri to hunt whitetail deer opening weekend of hunting season every year since my dad was a kid. My Uncle Bud and Grandpa Roger, who is his nephew, own a few thousand acres of farmland down there. I grew up with my dad leaving for four days every year to go hunting. We even have a freezer in our basement that is just for venison (deer meat). All of this is why it was a big deal when my dad asked me if I wanted to come down to Missouri with them. It was 2004 and I was in 5th grade, not old enough to hunt, so I would just be going down to experience it all. I remember being so excited. I even got to miss a day of school! We left the Thursday before opening day, which is the first Saturday before November 15th. After I got out of school on Thursday, my dad, Uncle Brent, cousin, and I began the long drive. We stayed at a motel near Chicago and got to Missouri Friday morning. We spent the day driving around to all of the hunting stands checking which ones were in good enough condition to use and making repairs to the ones that needed them. That night we had a huge homemade feast; the food is just as important as the hunting is for this weekend.
On Saturday, I stayed at the house, while my dad, Uncle Brent, and Grandpa Roger an hour and a half before sunrise to go hunting. They were all back by about noon. I don’t remember exactly who got what, but they had gotten a few deer. We went out in Uncle Bud’s beat up old pickup truck to go get them. This was the first time I had ridden in the bed of a pickup, and it felt freeing.. Once we had picked up all the deer, it was time to gut them. This was my first experience with gutting. I have to say it was pretty cool, but a bit gross. They went out for two more hunting sessions: one from about three to after dark and one Sunday morning.
This was the first year that I went down to Missouri. I did not learn very much, but I experienced a lot. I got a feel for what the weekend was all about, but that was all it took. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to hunt. Opening weekend had just replaced Christmas as my favorite time of year.
