The (now deceased) Sage of Eaton Rapids once told me about their family dog.
SoER was born in 1936 and grew up on the north side of Eaton Rapids. It was only a few, short steps before you were walking farmer's fields. In 1948 there were still fence-rows and shade-trees in the middle of the field for the farmer's horse to stand under while the ploughman took his break.
The fields were much smaller then. That was a legacy of the days when a farmer worked the fields with horses and he could only plow ten acres in a week. To spread the heavy work-load, he grew several crops with staggered planting dates. Corn, edible-beans and wheat were typical locally. Throw in a hay-field and woodlot and you ended up with four, ten-acre fields on a forty-acre farm. That 40 acre farm had 1-1/2 miles of fence row with scattered rock-piles.
The region was dotted with many small dairies with hay-fields and pastures.
Furthermore, marginal land had been "land-banked" during the 1930s to reduce production and raise prices. The 1940s saw many young men who might otherwise be farming go off to fight wars.
Those factors combined to create a super-abundance of Cottontail Rabbits.
The Sage told me that not only did he hunt rabbits on a regular basis, but neighbors would "borrow" their beagle to hunt rabbits.
The Sage's parents didn't mind a bit. Jack, the dog, enjoyed the exercise and the neighbors paid for the privilege by dropping off "extra" skinned and field-dressed rabbits to help feed Jack's family.
It was a pretty sweet deal for all parties involved.
Looking at the particulars
The bicycles of the day were very primitive but they almost always had a basket (or two). Some country kids rode their bikes to school every day until they had earned enough money for a car and some of those kids lived 6 miles outside of town. Pity the kid who lived northeast of Eaton Rapids. He had to bike along roads laid out in a rectangular grid and had to ride nine-miles to go six.
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| Given a 3 mile, one-way limit, there were approximately 9 square miles of hunting land accessible from where SoER grew up (marked with the red star). The area to the east is clipped by the Grand River. |
While the bikes were primitive, the people who had bikes rode them and had strong legs. Riding two or three miles out into the farmland was a trivial jaunt.
A smallish beagle might weigh 15 pounds and could be trained to ride in the bicycle's basket.
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| Charles Daly 101, a modern single-shot shotgun. Priced at approximately $110 without the optic |
One of the most common "kid's" firearms was the single-shot, break-open shotgun. These were often in 20 gauge or 410 because the shotgun was light weight (on the order of 4-1/2 pounds) and the recoil was daunting in 12 gauge. The shotguns came apart by loosening a single screw in the bottom of the fore-arm and the two parts could be stuffed in a backpack or lashed to the top tube of the bike frame.
Of course, this system was not limited to kids. Adults could also ride bikes and use portable shotguns.
SoER recollects that he ate a lot of rabbit meat as a kid.
Dad grew up in Bismarck, ND during the Depression. The family had a single shot .22 rifle for rabbit hunting, and he would take it after school to try to improve the family food situation. He had 4 brothers, and food was hard to come by, especially protein. Grandpa would whip him if he expended a round and had no rabbit to show for it, so Dad got very very good with head shots.
ReplyDeleteMy mother and dad talked about the same thing as tweell mentioned. When food was scarce, hunting to add to the pot was 'expected'...
ReplyDeleteLike tweell said. Dad said he was handed five .22 shells and expected to come back with five rabbits or get a wuppin'. Dad was an excellent shot...
ReplyDeleteFWIW, a friend asked a DNR agent about the high bag limit for wabbits. The agent said to not worry, we'll never run out.
Wow Mr Big Shot! Apparently my grandfather was a quite the marksman by the time he enlisted sometime in the mid 1930's because he was eventually only granted a single 22LR cartridge after school to make dinner more interesting.
DeleteWhen I was a kid we took our shotguns and 22s to school on the school bus and the bus driver would always say "is it unloaded?" and we would put it in our locker and hunt home through the woods and fields. That was the Gun Control I grew up with. ---ken
ReplyDeleteTimes long ago and far away. All of my neighborhood orchards - fields - swamps (early 70's) are fully urban landscapes now. No shotguns, but .22s and pellet rifles provided plenty of protein.
ReplyDeleteIn a strange way, reading Rent-a Beagle, I was transformed to a 1950's era country diner, hearing the Sage telling the story over coffee. How wonderful it must have been to hear his stories.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Joe.
Milton