Dom: Dom
is the star of this tale. Picture a cross between Frank Sinatra and Joe
DiMaggio, at 80 years old, and you see Dom. He is genuinely a nice guy
and has all the charm in the world, but he hides it with a tough guy image
up front. It protects his “macho-ness”. He’s 80, but he’s a young 80. He
walks to, and climbs, his tree stand without any assistance. He walks similarly
to Tim Conway when Tim plays the little old man….moving his arms at 25
mph, but moving his feet only at 2 mph.
If
you cross Dom, he talks as if he’s 40 years old, and threatens to be able
to kick your butt, but we all know otherwise. He is quite a bit naïve
in modern day matters, but he’ll never admit it to anyone, nor will he
act like it. But Dom loves to have fun, and really doesn’t mind being the
brunt of jokes.
Most
of Dom’s hunting experience comes from his early days of deer hunting in
the mountains of Pennsylvania….during the months of November and December.
Because of this, he knows little about swamp deer habits and he tends to
dress too warmly for hunting in South Florida. He refers to the prairies
between the pine islands and cypress heads as “farmers’ fields”. He tries
to charm the deer into him with pieces of apples (as if the deer down here
ever saw an apple). And, he “keeps the chill off his body” by toting around
a flask of red wine in his backpack and hitting it every little once in
awhile.
Dom
hates to have wet feet and wet clothes. Now, if that really bothers you,
then you have no business hunting in the ‘glades. Getting wet, is a given.
If, while walking, you stumble on a submerged stone, you often splash yourself.
As you slither through the wet needle grass on the prairies, you get your
pants wet. As you quietly make your way through the wet scrub oak, myrtle
and palmetto bushes, they slap your shirt with moisture.
Dom
tries to avoid all this discomfort by sometimes wearing a plastic rain
suit…..even if there’s no chance of rain. Further, he likes his snacks
fresh. So, in his backpack are usually a few snacks wrapped in aluminum
foil.
Since
Dom doesn’t like to walk to his tree stand in the dark, he leaves camp
and heads out shortly after daybreak. The problem with this is, that the
rest of the hunting party is usually on their treestands by daybreak. So,
if you’re unlucky enough to have your treestand set up within 100 yards
of Dom, between the rubbing plastic legs of the rainsuit, and the steely
noise of the aluminum foil unfolding, you might as well have set up your
treestand near 800 screaming teenage girls at a heavy metal rock concert.
It gets extremely noisy.
In
spite of all these mistakes, Dom sees a lot of deer from his treestand.
He must be a deer magnet. Either that, or the animals can’t believe what
they hear, and they are so curious at all the strange noises, that they
come by to take a closer look.
The
Players
Continued
This Page Created 9/30/00 Story by Tony Lepri