The Hungry Dog Hunts The Best Story
Bill Woodsman
I have found that principles have no real force except when one is well fed. - Mark Twain
I
eat beanie weanies, sardines, have often wondered cheese, bologna and other why it is that during mysterious foods that come the period I think I feel in small, round cans, invarimost active, I seem to gain ably packed in oil or grease the most weight. It has been to tempt the tastebuds and my contention that during fill the tummy. By the time hunting season when I am I get home thoroughly exeither hunting quail or out hausted from sitting and ridin the duck blind or doing ing the back roads in a four something very active, I by four, I am usually starvshould maintain my weight ing. Needless to say, I fail to or lose some. By the time comprehend the fact that spring gets here, I am usuI have already consumed ally 15 or 20 pounds overover 8,000 calories and exweight and must go on a pended approximately 400. rather strict diet. I am now Be that as it may, all hunters on one of my diet binges have to come in very hungry and, while counting caloand tired, and I assure my ries, I have discovered that wife that I am no different, perhaps there is some reaand I sit down to a full fourson behind the apparent course supper. folly that has occurred during the winter. Thank God I only hunt Dr. Billy Ogden and his black Lab, Babe. once or twice a week durDuring one of my early morning excursions to hunt turkeys, I had ample op- ing the season because if I hunted more, I would weigh portunity to refuse a large number of calories but in the neighborhood of 500 pounds. I would probably failed! I went along with the crowd and consumed a be as mystified as ever wondering how in the world a number of calories not in keeping with my activity lev- busy, hard-hunting guy like me could ever get so fat. el. It will remain a mystery to me why a hunter needs The more we look into it, I am afraid the more surto eat 6,000 calories for breakfast when he is going to prised and disappointed we become. Perhaps if I made expend 150 sitting beneath a tree waiting for a turkey a rule that I ate only what I shot in one day, no doubt to gobble by. All hunters seem to do this as part of a I would be known as “slim Woodsman.” What’s more, ritual. I admit that, while a cup of coffee and piece of I might even become a better hunter…hunger has a toast would suffice, I prefer the preserves, the biscuits, funny way of making the hungry dog work! the fried and scrambled eggs, the fried potatoes, the sausage, the milk, the orange juice and other goodies typical of a hunter’s early morning feast. After a very “Bill Woodsman” was born in 1954 when eighth grader Billy Ogden created his nom de long and tedious sit beneath a tree, hunger dictates a 10 plume “Willie the Woodsman.” He wrote weekly hunting articles for his all boys junior high o’clock run to the local store to discuss our successes or school in Macon, Georgia. When Dr. Ogden entered college and medical school, “Willie” failures and indulge in a honey bun, some nabs and a matured into “Bill” as he has continued to write about the sports of hunting and fishing. Pepsi-Cola. By 11:30 or 12 we then must go ahead and Spring & Summer 2020 | 954 | 83
