Passing it On.

Had my grandson out riding in the pasture with me the other day, and it was one hundred and one questions. He was asking what this tree was, what was that animal he had seen and a million other things. As I got to explaining to him in a way that I hoped a 2 1/2 year old could understand, I got to thinking back to my childhood as I remembered my grandfathers and uncles explaining things to me as I grew up. Have you started passing the things that others passed to you on to others? I was reading some stats the other day that shows the number of people hunting and fishing are declining each year, as less and less young people are being introduced to the woods and waters. My son never really cared a lot for the woods as he had rather play video games growing up, I know we can not force what we enjoy doing on everyone around us, but I think we need to help portray our sport and passion as a better idea than it gets sometimes. I know for those of us that are raised here in the "country" as some would say, have this lifestyle around us all the time. Some of my son and daughters friends that were raised in town, would always love to come out to our farm when they was growing up, and my kids hated it. If you have time, check into some programs that could help us to pass on what we like to do to some younger people that have an interest in what we have to offer. We each have our own children and grandchildren to pass it on, but DON'T cram it down them, as I think that was the mistake I made with my kids. Try and do what we can to keep our traditions alive and healthy, we have enough bad things out there about what we do, so lets try to get a lot more good info out there. Just remember to PASS IT ON, CAUSE SOMEBODY DID THAT FOR YOU!