My birthday is coming up. I am very excited and have gotten all in a tiff about it. Mostly because I am so mad about archery that the prospect of receiving some archery gifts has me dizzy.
My father had sent me an early money gift and I had ordered myself a serving jig and some spectra serving line. I was interested in seeing the spectra line as my background is in sailboats and sailboat rigging and spectra has almost become common in our little sailing world. (Spectra is a high tech very, very low stretch line, although in this application archery folks appreciate it for it’s resistance to abrasion and its slipperiness on the release)
Bearpaw BCY string server with BCY Halo .019 or my new serving jig and line.
I was expecting a box and so when I got home on our front door steps there indeed was a small box which had to be the the jig and serving line. There was also a long box from my father with the words FRAGILE in marker.
Now, in a Pavlovian sort of way I have come to associate long skinny boxes with the best thing on the planet, bows. Could it be? I mean could it? I now have 4 bows, a compound, two traditional recurve bows, and an Olympic style recurve, could I have another?!
Went inside found my rigging knife and semi-carefully opened the box. There secured in bubblewrap was a short Harry Drake 55 inch, 50 pound traditional hunting recurve. I’d seen this bow in pictures before but never in life. It is short to navigate brush and traveling through the woods while after your quarry.
My dad had recently sent me some photographs of a hunting trip in Mona which is an island in the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where wild boar and goats can be hunted. See pic below:
My father is the fellow on the left, holding the bow I now have in my hands.
Mona!
What’s great about all this to me is I get to share a part of my father’s life with him, may it be in pictures and stories or in a bow, for I am not only getting archery tackle, I am getting family history, the isle of Mona, and in some way I am also getting a part of my father.
I am grateful.
Charles' Archery Blog 
Dear Charles, I am so glad that you feel a part of the family history and feel part of your Dad since he is a very remarkable man. In a way, the Archery has bonded you together and this is great. I am also happy that you feel grateful since gratefulness is one of the best feeling I know. It not only brings the best of you but bring a lot of generous feelings to share, including a real appreciation for life and oneself.
Michu, Thank you for you ongoing comments and support of this little blog. love, C.
Charles! You made me cry!!
Jill, I didn’t mean to I swear, Thanks for reading it though, I do appreciate it.
These blogs bring our family a lot of joy! Honestly, it is similar to a present in the mail when they arrive.
Thanks for reading and posting a comment!
Dear Charles, I am impressed with your growing talent for expressing feelings, an ability also noted by other readers of your blog. Your carefully chosen words ring true with sincerity and appreciation for tradition and the small but important things that bond us together in one common family. I can’t help but notice that you are following through and continuing with some of my favorite activities, i.e., chess, photography, archery and writing. Makes me proud and fills me with admiration. Love, Dad
Well I wondered where I got it from! Am enjoying it, hope to see you in July.
C.
Advance Happy Birthday or maybe, today is the big day! CL, I enjoyed reading the ‘MY father’s bow’ series. :)
Hello Claire and thank you for the birthday wishes, sadly my birthday is past, at least till next year. Are you involved with archery? C.