MODERN ARCHERY FOR LIFE (REVISED): An Autobiography of one Archer

By Jake Veit

It was the spring of 1951 when Jake Veit’s father, an avid outdoorsman, decided he wanted to learn to bowhunt. As Jake picked up his father’s enthusiasm for archery, he began shooting in tournaments and bowhunting small game, and ultimately helped his father found an archery club.

While intertwining his entertaining personal experiences while growing up in Ohio and beyond with insight into the ancient sport of archery and accompanying images, Veit provides a fascinating glimpse into all the ways involvement in archery can positively effect its participants. As he leads others through his experiences and the history of a sport that has helped man survive over time, Veit details his tournament experiences, the mental and physical control that he and others had to refine to be successful, how to properly execute a shot sequence and other techniques, and much more. Throughout his presentation, Veit reminds us that archery is a life sport that provides exercise and fun while demonstrating that no one has to win to feel accomplished.

Modern Archery for Life shares personal experiences, insight, and images that shine an intriguing light onto an ancient sport that can be enjoyed by all ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665753531

Jake Veit

Jake Veit has been engaging in archery ever since he was a boy growing up in Ohio. His father enjoyed helping new archers and new archery clubs and as an adult. As an adult, the author began an archery club of his own when he moved to an area east of Columbus that did not have one. He is also the author of The Secrets of Modern Archery.

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Copyright © 2023 Jake Veit.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-5352-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-5353-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023922728

Archway Publishing rev. date: 11/27/2023

BOOK INDEX

Dedication

Chapter 1 - Lets Get Started

Chapter 2 - Outside the Home

Chapter 3 - Summer Vacation

Chapter 4 - Starting Archery

Chapter 5 - Progress or Just Change

Chapter 6 - Bowfishing as a Youth

Chapter 7 - Youth Archery

Chapter 8 - Growing Family

Chapter 9 - Back to School Days

Chapter 10 - High School

Chapter 11 - I Need Wheels

Chapter 12 - Hunting in Ohio

Chapter 13 - First Real Job

You Never See It Coming

Chapter 14 - Graduation

Chapter 15 - On My Own

Chapter 16 - Starting a New Life

Chapter 17 - Marriage

Chapter 18 - First House

Chapter 19 - Drafting Work

Chapter 20 - More Archery Involvements

Chapter 21 - Instinctive Shooting

Chapter 22 - First Big National Tournament

Chapter 23 - More Archery

Chapter 24 - Archery Golf

Chapter 25 - Archers Inventiveness’

Chapter 26 - The Perfect Round O

Chapter 27 - TWAC 1978

Chapter 28 - Working in Ohio

Chapter 29 - Going to Idaho

Chapter 30 - Back to IDAHO

Chapter 31 - Archery in Idaho

Chapter 32 - NFAA Instructor Chairman

Chapter 33 - Back to the IFAA

Chapter 34 - Silhouette Shooting for Archery

Chapter 35 - Bowhunting in Idaho

Chapter 36 - Competitions

Chapter 37 - In the Valley

Chapter 38 - Back to Work

Chapter 39 - Phoenix

Chapter 40 - Motorcycle Accident

Chapter 41 - Pittsburgh

Chapter 42 - Move to Georgia

Chapter 43 - Archery in Georgia

Chapter 44 - Finding Archery Clubs in Georgia

Chapter 45 - Target Archery in Georgia

Georgia Games - Archery

Chapter 46 - Georgia Archery Association

Chapter 47 - Judging in Canada

Chapter 48 - Other Archery Involvement

Chapter 49 - Archery Conflict

Chapter 50 - NAA Includes Compound

Chapter 51 - The 1996 Olympics

Chapter 52 - Back to GAA

Chapter 53 - My Shooting & Judging

Chapter 54 - Certifications

Chapter 55 - National Guard Armory

Chapter 56 - Archery on the Move

Chapter 57 - Home Life and Work

Chapter 58 - Year of Retirement

Chapter 59 - Our Health

Chapter 60 - Memorabilia & Commentary

Archery Glossory

Archery for Money

Artiecle Index

The Life Sport of Archery

The Compound Bow When?

What Does Archery Require

A Healthy Pastime

Archery Equipment

Archery Organizations

Image of Archery

Youth Archers

Archery Competition

Achronological History of Archery

Ageing and Performance

Aiming an Arrow

Archers are People Too

Archery Rounds

Archery a Way of Life

Archery Aerobics

Archery Demo’s

Archery Direction for Beginners

Archery Image

Archery Interest-Why Shoot

Putting on an Archery Tournament

A Review of Archery

Arrow Size

Basic Archery Shooting Technique

Bowhunting When?

Coaching is for Me

Competition and Archery

Do I Need To?

Don’t Judge Me

Draw Length

Effort has Purpose

Effort to Improve

Ethics In Archery

Everyone Has Priorities

Field Archery

Focus in Archery

Functional Archery Class Format

point of interest

First Archery class

Bill of Rights for Young Archers

Second Archery class

Third Archery class

Forth Archery class

Fifth Archery class

Sixth Archery class

Help Share Your Archery

I Teach & Shoot Archery

Let Go

I Would Like to Have a Chance to Win

It Is Not That Emportent

Let’s Start with the Brain

Nutrition for Archers

Organizations and Awards

Or Round

Pictures to Help You with Your Shooting

Should I Join

Sports Parents Guide

Polarity in Archery

Positive Attitude

Practice Sessions

A Life Sport of Archery

So You Think Your in Control

The Mind of Archery

Thinking about Coaching Archery

Tournament Preparation

To Touch or Not To Touch

Train Your Subconscious

Watch Me Shoot?

We Must Compare

What Kind of Bow Should I Shoot?

What Should I Shoot

Why Archery for Kids ?

Why is Field Archery Difficult

Why Shoot Archery with a Finger Release

Appendix - Involvement

Book Signing

Archery Rounds

Archery Organizational Structure as of 2014

One Day Archery Class

My Secrets

Why is Second Place Bad?

Arrows

Two Minds to Shoot Archery

MODERN ARCHERY for LIFE

An Autobiography of one Archer

Modern Archery for Life is about my memories

and collected material over the years

I took all the pictures myself

Over the years shooting around the country

I have met many dedicated archers,

shooters and workers at the local level but

they didn’t have an interested in traveling to compete.

I don’t remember and can’t thank everyone enough

who has helped me along the way

It is not the skill you have in archery that counts

but your effort to develop that skill that counts

Thanks to the NFAA, Barebow Fraternity and USAA

This is to the Unsung and Unknown

promoters of our sport of ARCHERY.

Thanks to my wife, who has put up with me and archery.

Idaho Dec. 1985

Chapter 1

Lets Get Started

Archery has been a part of my life since the age of 10. But lets start at the beginning. I was born Jacob Veit Jr. September 11, 1941 at Mount Caramel Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. To Jacob Jake F. Veit, Sr. and Betty Veit (Donavon). From what I can find out they where living with my fathers Mother at the start of their marriage. There are pictures of my grandmother, Tina Veit holding me as a baby in 1941 but I don’t remember her. I was baptized Jacob Fredrick Veit Jr. in the Catholic church, but I don’t remember that either. All my relatives called me Jackie, go figure I was a kid. My dad’s father Otto Veit died when he was 10, in some kind of an accident. My father left school in the 3rd grade to help support the family, he was the youngest of seven. My dad, Jake Sr. grow up near St. Mary’s Catholic church in the south end of Columbus. He worked as a youth and young man at a Sheet Medal shop owned by his Brother in Law, Edward L. King. Who was married to his oldest sister, Mildred L. My mom must of lived in the same area as my father, they met in their teens. My mother, Betty was a stay at home wife. Jake Sr. got a job working sheet medal on damaged aircraft in 1942 at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio.

In caring for me at home my mother gave me orange juice as a supplement to the milk. They never made the connection right off but after I had the orange juice I would break out in hives. I would scratch until I bleed. They put mittens on my hands and feet to keep me from scratch. After taking me to a doctor, it turned out I was allergic to orange juice and diagnosed as having Bronchial Asthma. There was a list other items from house dust, some foods and penicillin I was allergic to. Of course this limited my exertion in any physical effort but I learned my limitations and lived with it, not much choice. In 1943 my father received a draft notice from the Army. By this time he had a family with me, his wife and a baby on the way, my brother Tom. He gathered paper work from Wright Patterson that he was needed to work on damaged aircraft. At the recruiting office in 1943 he was told they needed foot soldiers. They didn’t even look at his papers, the sergeant just touched them in a waste can. He was to report to a training center in Florida. My mother was carrying my brother, so some how we all moved to Florida for his training, I assume to be closer. We stayed in Florida while my father was sent to Europe and he came back in 1946.

He never talked about the war. I remember my mother’s sister Phyllis staying with us in Florida. My mother and her sister had an old car, a Chevy Coupe, picture on the page above. I think it was just to get around in, I don’t remember any trips. One day my brother, Tom and I where playing in the car. It was right there in the driveway, he was 2 and I was 4. The driveway had a slight slope to it. My brother was behind the steering wheel standing on the seat. I was on the floor playing with the pedals. I pushed the clutch in and the car started moving. My brother started jumping up and down with excitement. We rolled to a stop at the end of the driveway into a tree. No damage to anyone or anything but I remember that. I also remember my mother was really upset. The car was locked all the time after that. I remember a hurricane, I don’t know why I was outside at the time. But I could lean some 45% into the wind and not fall down. There where bushes and tree limbs blowing by me. Going home I saw a Stop sign embedded in a tree. Never thought about anything hitting me? Our family album has photo’s of us at the beach and other places in Florida during that time. I remember very little but have the pictures.

My father was discharged from the Army in Florida where he had been in training. My parents decided, mostly my dad, to buy a 16’ house (camping) trailer and travel some on the way back to Ohio. We traveled around through states along the East coast for about a year. Dad wanted to see some of the country before going back to Ohio I guess. Going through the Appalachians some of the roads where steep and we where pulling a trailer in an old car. The old Coupe pulling the trailer uphill was working hard. Going up one hill a dog ran out into the road barking. My dad couldn’t stop on the hill with the trailer. We would never get up the hill from a standing start and it would be near impossible to back up down the hill. He hit and killed the dog. We got to the top of the hill and he pulled over and stopped. My dad went back to the dead dog and picked him up. He took the dog to the nearest house, it was their dog. He explained what happened and apologized and we went on our way. His concern for the dog and his owners stuck with me.

Another time we stopped at a trailer park in Massachusetts that had an old abandon rock quarry next to it, full of water. This was told to me; my dad decided to go for a swim. Before supper he put on his trucks and went over to the waters edge on a steep bolder. This quarry had some sheer sides most of the way around it. He went over to a 30’ rock ledge and dove into the water. As he surfaced he saw me jumping off the ledge after him with my clothes on, I think I was five. He was right there so nothing bad happened. But when he told my mom what happened, she got upset. It was in the New England area somewhere we were eating supper in the trailer. Spinach was on the menu, I didn’t like it. I was told I was going to stay there until I eat the spinach. I sat there for a long while, then my father came over and held me down. He held my nose closed and every time I went to breath he put some spinach in my mouth. You know today I like spinach. At one location where we parked the trailer, my dad caught some frogs, big frogs. Used a fishing pole with a small piece of red cloth on the hook. He dangled the cloth in front of them and them and them eat it. My mom was cooking them, added some salt as they where cooking and the legs started moving, that was cool. We went through most of the states East of the Mississippi River. I’m sure we went to a lot of places I don’t remember. There are a lot of pictures in the family album, I just don’t remember most.

getting home

When we got back to Ohio I remember parked in a empty lot next to my mothers uncle’s place in Bexley, Ohio, just east of Columbus. I remember walking down a road with no curb holding a big man’s hand. I seemed to know him, so I was relaxed. We went down the road to a store to get some candy. I didn’t know who he was until much later. He was my mothers father, my grandfather. Who passed away shortly after that. I don’t remember my mothers parents being in Fl. But I do remember them in a trailer next to ours in Bexley. I remember going to a kindergarten in Bexley for awhile maybe one year. I didn’t like nap time. So we must of been at that place almost a year living in the trailer next to my mother’s uncles house.

our own place

We moved into a duplex house on Gates St. in German Village in the south end of Columbus. The trailer was gone but there where other kids in the neighborhood our age. Most of the houses there where Duplex’s. German Village then was a low income neighborhood and today it is very different. It is desirable condo’s in he area now. Our house was a fixer upper, my dad did work on the foundation and other rooms. I remember exploring the empty rooms, but nice as I remember. We at least had more room then the trailer that was great. It was shortly after that I found out I was Catholic. We went to mass at St. Leo’s about three blocks from our house, almost every week. I started 1st grade that fall at St. Leo’s in 1947. There was another Christian church just across the street from us. It was just there until summer time when we were out of school. My brother and I attended bible class there in the summer, think to get us out of the house, it was not Catholic. I assume my mother made my brother and I attend Bible School just to give us something to do during the summer. I assume my farther bought the house on the GI Bill, I don’t know. The house was facing south, we lived on the East side of the duplex and my Grandmother, Dort (short for Dorothy) lived in the West side of the duplex. I don’t know if my grandmother helped with the house payments or not. My Grandmother lived alone and kept the house spotless, you know plastic of the furnisher. She worked at a shoe store near downtown. She had a garage built in the back part of her yard and put a fence around her yard. To keep us kid and animals out of her yard I presume.

The house was a two story with two bedrooms up stirs and with a full basement. The basement had a large coal furnace next to a coal bend. There where four air ducks leading from the furnace to outlets in the first floor. No heating ducks went to the second floor just rising heat from the first floor got there through small vents. Before winter my dad ordered, I don’t know a ton or two of coal. They would dump it at the curb in front of the house. We had a wheel barrel and had to push it up a three foot incline to the coal shout in the side of the house going down into the basement coal bend. There was a drain in the basement floor. My dad did some work to make a shower in the basement. There was only one bathroom in the middle of the house. With the furnace you would have to start a fire with wood and paper and add the coal a little at a time for more heat, don’t even think about air-conditioning. The kitchen was a extended room in the back of the first floor. The stars went up between the rooms next to the bathroom. My brother and I had bunk beds in the back bedroom upstairs and my mother and father slept in the front bedroom. Being the oldest I slept on the top, don’t remember a latter just climb up. I never fell out but I liked to jump. This was the situation for some only for two years. Living here and going to church and school.

growing family

My brother started school in 1949, that is the year my sister Sue was born. She stayed in my patents room. I don’t remember adjusting to my brother but now a baby girl is in the family. My mother became friendlier with her cousin, Kathleen. She was about the same age as my mom but didn’t have any children of her own. She didn’t seem interested with us boys but now their was a little girl. It appeared my mothers priority changed. We are more on our own. My father joined the Southeast conservation Club that had a 48 acre lake. My brother and I would go to the club to fish and some meetings. We seemed to be spending more time at the club. We would picnic on the weekends and there was a swimming area behind the club house. This is the way is was until 1953when my sister Deb was born. Both the girls were born at home with a mid-wife.

My Grandmother worked at Gilbert’s Shoe Store in Columbus. I remember going there to get shoes, I assume at a discount. My mother and grandmother below. The shoe store had an x-ray stand where you could put your feet into it to see if the shoes fit. Rally cool, did that a lot and still have good feet. My Above is my mother and grandmother. I don’t know way my father didn’t get back into sheet metal but he did what he had to do I guess. He did tell me how he got into carpentry. He applied for a job at a construction site. There were a lot of men there also looking for a job. A man asked Who knows how to build staircases The man assumed anyone answering knew how. My dad raised his hand, he didn’t really know how. The man hiring told him to report to work tomorrow. My dad went out and bought a book on carpentry. He had just read about building staircases that night and had some idea of how to get started the next day. There was a two story building that needed staircases up to the second story on the outside at both ends of a building. One man was told to start at one end and my dad was to start at the other end. He started framing the stairs and when he had trouble, he took a break and read the book. He came back and continued until he finished on the second day. He wanted to know how he did compared to the other carpenter? So he went down to the other end, took a look and the guy was just over half way done. He said he felt good about himself. My Father partnered up with two Army buddies and started a repair and remodeling house business. They eventually where contracted to do a whole house. He said it was a challenge but came out really nice. Building in Ohio is a fest or famine situation. Good work in the summer but not so much in the winter.

Chapter 2

Outside the Home

As mentioned I started 1st grade in 1947 at St. Leos Elementary, grades 1 through 8. I had gotten use to my limitations with the asthma. With my birthday being Sept 11, I was the youngest in my class. I didn’t like school, everybody telling you what to do and when. I was good at math but catechism was just memorizing, not really teaching us why. I was taking allergy shots every week day at the doctors office after school. My dad had joined the conservation club with a camping area and that 48 acre lake to fish in just outside of town. The lake was an active quarry on the other side of the lake from the club property. The club had a cinder block club house that had room for 100 people or so with a large kitchen in the back. They always had someone cooking something, especially during meetings and on weekends. Behind the club house there was an inland about 60’ off shore. They brought in sand and made a sand beach for a swimming area. The swimming area was roped off. My brother and I took swimming lessons at the YMCA down town before swimming in the lake. Then at the YMCA for us swimming was in the nude. Seamed normal but it felt a little strange at first but everyone swam naked, boys only. At the conservation club in the lake we had on bathing suites, confusing to me. During the summer we swam and picnicked often.

The club would have game fish like catfish and bass stocked in the lake once a year in the spring. It was great watching all those fish being released into the lake from a truck. They netted the fish and put them in buckets, then dumped they from a dock. You couldn’t fish for two days, to let the fish acclimate. When you did start fishing you wondered where did they all go? My brother and I went fishing during the summer before we started school and on weekends after school started generally from the ducks or shore. We didn’t have a boat. I don’t remember mom fishing much, she fixed to food. One year my dad got a canoe to use on the lake. I wanted to paddle, you know young and? So he let me paddle, he would say keep the nose pointed at those trees. We would get there we turned around and he would say keep the nose pointed at those rocks. Of course everything he had me paddling to was on the other side of the lake. It took me some time to realize I was his motor to troll the lake fishing.

My brother and I did a lot of roaming on our own around the neighborhood and conservation club. The club had a lot of activities for youth; fishing and hunting clinics, camping and hatchet throwing, BB gun shooting, safety classes and conservation clinics. Most of the hunting and outdoor clinics emphasized conservation of resources’. There was a lot to do with the outdoors, we loved it, not like school. There where a lot of small fish in the lake; bluegills, sunfish and the like. The club members convinced themselves these small fish were eating the food of the game fish. The small fish where the food for the game fish but no one seemed to listen. Anyway they stocked four Great Northern Pike in the lake to eat the small fish. Well they didn’t eat the small fish, they eat the game fish, go figure. I caught a 3 lb. catfish with half a tail. Sometimes the Pike looked like a log flouting in the lake. Of course they tried but could never get the Pike out of the lake.

I think my mother tried to distract me from being to wild or give me purpose with some drawing lessons given by a cousin. My father would draw Popeye on napkins all the time, looked good to me. My mother had this cousin that gave drawing and painting classes, art lessons. I learned how to use the sq. block system to draw an existing picture. You find a picture you like, put a 1/4 sq. grid on it. Now you get a larger piece of paper or canvas and make a 1 sq. grid or larger if you like on the paper. Now you draw exactly what see in each of the 1/4 sq. into the same 1 sq. on your paper to keep proportions right. Now you have the same picture four times larger and in proposition. Propositions are easier in a one squire at a time and you had the same picture, it looked great, neat. The drawing lessons lead to oil painting lessons during my second year in taking classes, no acrylics’. Basic stuff; fruits, flowers and scenery, I tried to be exact. When I was in the second grade the school was holding an art contest. It was held in the basement of the school, the kitchen and lunch area. The nun’s where nice enough but strict. In my art class I had found a night scene of pin trees with snow on the trees and ground at night under a full moon. I was told it was to hard for me but I liked it. That did it I had to paint it, so they let me try. It took me just over two months to get it the way I wanted but I did it and I thought it looked great. As timing would have it I entered that picture in the schools art contest. Now by chance I had to go to the restroom on the first floor. While I was starting to come out of the restroom I heard the three judges, all teachers at the school talking in the hall. I heard one say lets give the Veit boy second place. I don’t think he painted that picture. After I heard that and they left I went home, didn’t stay for the awards. I never painted in oils again until I was in my 70’s but we use acrylics’ now, much easier. With oils you had to let it dry before putting on the next coat.

When I was entering the 3rd. grade my brother was entering the 1st grade. At this time I was still taking allergy shots five days a week. At that time the test for allergies was they put a liquid drop of different foods, molds and the like on your skin one inch apart. Now you had one drop of each item on your skin and they pricked each drop with a pin. I had drops on both arms and my back. I was allergic to 64 different items to different degrees at that time. Mostly Penicillin and other molds, Lintels, house dust, animal dandruff and some other foods. I walked to the doctors office ever day after school to get an allergy shot made for the things I was allergic to. Each day when I get out of school I walk 8 blocks to a doctors office by myself, prearranged. I would go to the side door and knock. A nurse would come to the door and say Hi Jackie. She would go back in and come out with a needle and give me a shot. She would say were do you want it today? the shot, generally in the arm. Then I would go home. Later in 6th grade it was just three times a week. I didn’t play much with the other kids, I got out of breath to quietly.

When not in school and during the summer I would go to work sites with my dad and help clean up, sweep and carry scrape wood out to a pile. My dad had added a small room to the back of a house for a lady. I’m sweeping the floor and I hear two people arguing in a strange language, later I found out it was German. I look around the corner and there was my dad, he was one of them arguing. I didn’t know he spoke German and he never taught us, we were the be Americans.

Chapter 3

Summer Vacation

1950

Near the end of the 3rd grade an Aunt and Uncle was visiting from Florida. Uncle Alex was the uncle we had lived next to in the trailer when we first got back to Ohio. They had arranged to return to Florida some three week before school ended. My uncle was flying back to Fl. he had business to complete and our aunt Glades was going to drive back in their car. She wasn’t happy about driving alone and didn’t want to wait long before going back. She suggested she take us boys with her for the summer, me and my brother. I remember my dad saying he had talked to a teacher at school and he thought he had arranged for us to take our final test when we got back, before school started again. We where excited until we started driving, a long drive. It took us five days to get to their house near Miami, no freeways. I got car sick driving so long, no fun, we stopped a lot. My aunt stopped at any roadside tourists traps to entertain us. The restaurants we stopped at were local shops with a local food, very interesting sometimes. There where no national restaurant chains then. One location in Tennessee that we stopped at, the whole area smelt like rotten eggs (sulfur). The locals didn’t seem to smell it, we did. You can imagine the great scenery going down through the Appellations’ into Georgia for young kids.

There house, like most Florida homes was a one floor ranch with a large screened in porch. The foliage was typically tropical and they had a pool in the back yard with a large garage and shop at the end of their driveway. My brother and I had our own room with the run of the house and yard. With local kids our age there were so many new things to check out. It was hot and muggy but we didn’t care. There where lizards and frogs everywhere. One morning I got up and went into the bathroom, turned on the light and there was a pair of eyes looking up at me from the sink, a frog was in the drain in the sink? They actually had a chameleon in their kitchen that eat insects. My uncle being an independent contractor didn’t work every day. My aunt was a realtor and gone most of the time. We spent most of our time with our uncle in his work shop or on a work site. There were other kids in the neighborhood we played with, some had dogs to play with. We went with our uncle on some small jobs. Plus they had their grown children in the area that visited. Our cousins would baby sit us sometimes. On one small job, putting a roof over a patio. I would hand my uncle shingles on the roof. Made me feel good and my brother piled scrip wood in the yard as they were tossed down into the yard. A young man, older then us, came into the yard and was taking some of the larger pieces of wood. My uncle yowled down, Hay buddy leave that stuff alone. The young man stop, looked up with a blank stare and said How did you know my name was Buddy?.

Our uncle liked to fish, there is no hunting season, you can’t hunt anything during the summer. One day he said, we are going to fish from a bridge. He had all the fishing gear we needed. So on our way he stopped for bait, Shrimp! I said I would rather eat the shrimp, he just gave me a funny look. The bridge was in the Florida keys. There were parking areas at both ends of the bridge, I assumed for the fisher men. The bridge was just two lanes with a 4’ sidewalk on either side with railings. We had to walk out several hundred yards onto the bridge carrying our gear, bait and a cooler. That was walking past other people already fishing off the bridge, no easy. We just went around trying, very hard to stay on the sidewalk. When we found a spot, I looked down. The water was some 40 or 50 feet straight down, your kidding me. Our uncle told us to hook the shrimp from teal to head, which we did. You couldn’t cast the bait out so you lowered it into the water and let the current carry it out. It didn’t take very long and you got a hit, a little tug would set the hook. The thing is you never knew what you caught until you pulled it out of the water. All different colors, most of the fish we through back in, our uncle said to small.

When I was told the fish was to small, almost two pounds I was confused. We kept that size back home. It was amazing I noticed most of the fish we through back in, entered the water head first almost every time. But most of the fish we got on the line got off before you pulled it up to the bridge deck. I would let my line down to about three feet off the water. Swung the bait until it went way under the bridge and let it drop. I was dropping my bait into the Golf of Mexico and the current brought it into the Atlantic, cool.

My uncle hooked a Tarpon, must of been 80 to 100 pounds, boy did it jump. When you hook a big fish on a bridge like that you have to work your way through or around other fishermen to get to shore, mostly under and around other fisherman. They would help you in getting to shore to land a big fish, not easy from shore. Anyway the Tarpon got off the line before he got to end of the bridge. Your fishing from the bridge and someone yells Truck. My uncle said hold onto the railing. A tractor trailer went by at 50 miles per hour and your on a 4’ sidewalk. You could feel the wind pulling you thourdes the truck, no cool. We kept 4 fish, about 9 or 10 pounds each, don’t remember what they were. On the way home my uncle said a few fisherman had been killed by trucks on that bridge over the years, now he tells us. When we got home my uncle let us clean and scale the fish. If you’ve never scaled a large fish you don’t know what a mess is scales everywhere. Wet scales stick like glue. Then he put them in the freezer. All in all that was a great fishing trip!

We went to some tourist spots like an alligator farm, monkey jungle and coral gardens. Going our to eat, it wasn’t hard to get seafood. We stayed around the house most of the time. Their pool was down for maintenance, it had a lick. We played in the pool anyway and hunted small animals most of the time. Even going to the grocery story was new and different. It seems people are people everywhere, it is just the surroundings changes. Tropical plants and sand everywhere. We didn’t remember anything about when we where is Fl. in 1943 to 1946. I mentioned my aunt was in real-estate. I remember her talking about a man asking her to buy some swamp land around Orlando. She didn’t like the idea and said no. I don’t know way I remember that but Disney World is there now.

Another time we went on a party fishing boat of about 15 people. We didn’t really party it was just to fish. It was a big boat to us. We went three to five miles out into the Atlantic. Sometimes you couldn’t see the shore. There were 20’ to 30’ swales. That is a big wave to us and were told it was a calm day to them. I could see a boat way off in the distance. It’s hard to judge distance on open water. Our boat would go up on the wave, I could see the boat and then the boat went down between the waves. I couldn’t see the other boat. I lost sight of the other boat going up and down. I got sea sick, I mean I had a hard time standing up. My brother don’t have any problems. We fished for about half hour, if the fishing was good. If not the boat moved to different locations until the fish started biting. Then I would grab my pole and catch a fish and go back and lay down. On a fishing boat like that the deck hands would bait your hook and take the fish off the line for you. That was OK with me. In one area my uncle brought in 1/2 of a Dolphin fish, sharks we where told. My brother got a shark on his line after it eat the whole fish on his line. He had that shark on his line now and he loved it. A deck hand come over and cut his line, time to move on he said. My brother was mad that he couldn’t try to catch the shark. That is the way it was. Again you never knew what was on the line until you brought it in. The crew cleaned your fish and put them in an ice chest for you. We went home with about 40 lbs. of fish.

At the end of the summer my aunt & uncle drove us back to Ohio. My brother, Tom and I had a great time. We also well remember the local tourist trips in Fl. while there; an alligator farm, monkey jungle, coral gardens and the like. When we got back my dad went to the school to arrange for us to take out final test for our grades. He was told we couldn’t take the test. That we where told wrong in June to leave, what? We both were held back a year. Now I’m with kids my own age in my class. Still having some trouble with my asthma, taking just three allergy shot a week. I thought I wanted to be an alter boy. I talked to some friends that were alter boys. One told me if I did, not to serve mass with a certain priest at an early mass by yourself as the only alter boy. I didn’t understand but I joined the choir instead.

We went to mass during school time on certain occasions during the year. Most of the time the choir sang at them. I was confirmed into the church, adding Norman as a middle name. I rarely use it. I made a lot of friends but was mostly by myself on the playground and with my brother after school. Sometimes a little brother is a pain. Always hanging around when you wanted to do something. One time I got mad and pushed him down and told him to go home. My dad heard about it and I was told never do that again, you never hurt family. He had a wood pedal with holes in it, I couldn’t set down for a while. I didn’t play any team sports in school or in local games around the neighborhood. I knew what would happen, out of breath. We will get back to school later.

paper route

When we got back from Florida and into a house I wanted more money then my small allowance. We had chores to do around the house and lots of free time. I could get a paper route but I needed a bike. My dad said if I found a used bike he would pay for half but I had to pay him back I was 9. I was looking for a bike when I got one for my birthday in 1949. It was a big Swan, it was a girls bike with the low center bar but I didn’t care. I got a morning paper route with 49 customers to deliver papers before school. The pickup area for the papers in the morning was on a corner about nine blocks from my house. It was in front of a store with a setback front door. A truck would drop off a bundle of papers at the curb for several routes. Each boy got the right amount for their route. We would pull the papers back into the setback area to get out of the wind or snow during the winter. We would all role each paper up by folding one end back into itself. Worked good, they stayed rolled up so I could throw them onto each porch as I road by on my bike at each house. I would get up at 5am, pickup and rolled the papers and put them in a large burlap bag on the front of my bike and delivered them before school every day. Now I had to collect the money from each customer and pay for the papers out of what I collected. Any money that was left over was mine. Some people didn’t pay and some where hard to catch at home. Sometimes I didn’t make anything. I didn’t like that so I canvassed my route to build up my customers. One morning at one hose I through the paper up on the porch. It slide up an d hit an aluminum storm door they had just installed. The noise scared me. I had to be more careful at that house after that. In a year I had built my route up to 99 customers. I was happier but then they cut my route in half and I quite.

I then got a paper route to deliver papers in the afternoon after school. They had a drop off point to pick up your papers in a hut. A collection center if you will, it was a shack in an empty lot. There must of been a dozen or so other boys that got their papers there. Sundays paper had to be delivered in the morning, I was used to that. This next part is hind sight; on one Sunday morning some boys were wanting for the papers to be delivered to the shack. One boy had his dog with him, he said his dog was an attack dog. So the manager of the shack, a college kid said OK have him attack the next boy through the door. You guessed it, it was me. All I saw was this dog running thourdes me barking. I slammed the door. The dog was still barking and the boys were laughing. I yowled out to give me my papers. They where all laughing and didn’t answer me, so I went home. The shack manager called my house and wanted to know were I was. I told him to drop dead, he said I could loose my route, at that point I didn’t care. I told my dad what happened and he drove in his car to pick up the papers and helped me deliver the Sunday paper on time. I carried papers until I was 12.

Some of us kids, maybe three or four who had BB guns and bikes would just roam around. Anywhere away from our home turf, just to be doing something. We would ride down alleys and roads with little traffic. You know most of it looked a lot like our area. Except Greenlawn Cemetery, about a mile from our house. My Grandfather on my mothers side was there, we would ride by his stone and I never told the others it was my Grandfather. All the different design stones and the one lane road was like a maze to us. There was a RR bridge not far away that crossed the Scioto river south of the city. Every once in a while we would walk across the RR tracks on the bridge. I was reluctant and worried about a train coming along, one never did. We would pick out objects along the river and shoot at them. There was sewage flouting down the river that became targets. Never every thought about fishing in that river. Never got into any real trouble.

Chapter 4

Starting Archery

It was the spring of 1951 my dad decided he wanted to learn to bowhunt. I don’t want to say we were poor but we hunted with a gun for food during hunting season. Mostly small game, rabbit and pheasant not deer. We had a place to fish and we hunted on the farmer club member’s property but no place to shoot archery. My dad would repair fences and small buildings for the farmers when needed. To keep good relations so we could hunt. We had a very small backyard at the house, we couldn’t shoot there. You think it is hard to find a place to shoot archery today. There wasn’t any sporting goods stores that carried any archery equipment in all of Columbus. My father had an army buddy that lived in another state that bowhunted, he helped us. My dad found a local bowyer and we got a bow and some arrows. My dad’s buddy was a member of the National Field Archery Association, NFAA. He told us how to get in touch with the NFAA and we were off. My dad asked permission at a club meeting to set up a target in the back of the conservation club property, they agreed. Now he had a place to practice. He knew nothing about archery but knew the outdoors. Now in shooting at the club and information from his friend, we practiced. We found out archery was organized but we didn’t get any help on how to shoot. There where other members around that saw my dad shooting. Well they wanted to try shooting as well. So he setup a few more targets. He helped them get some archery equipment. Now we had a growing group.

More members in the club wanted to learn to shoot archery and get their kids shooting. My dad helped them and they shot with us with three more targets set up. My dad approached the conservation club to help him get equipment to teach archery. They agreed and paid for some inexpensive fiberglass bow and some cheap arrows for him to teach with. It looked good to us and archery became a club activity. Now every Saturday he gave archery lessons for anyone interested. We set up five bales to shoot at up to 50 yds. We started everyone at 10 yards. Mostly we shot very close, to keep from missing so much and loosing arrows. We had straw bales on the ground about 15 yds. behind our target bales we where shooting at, to stop missed arrows. My dad was left handed, it was harder for him to find archery equipment. He had to have a bow made just for him after a year or so. Of course I wanted to do what dad was doing, I started shooting that first year and as the group grow I help teach. I started shooting left handed, was comfortable and that was the way dad shot. Through the NFAA my dad found out that there weren’t any archery clubs in our area. So he affiliated our little archery activity with the NFAA through the Ohio Archers, OA as an archery club. They send us information on the NFAA and we had to join the Ohio Archers as individuals to shoot in any of their tournaments. The OA was the NFAA state affiliate. Your membership fee included the NFAA & OA. But they, the NFAA or the OA didn’t have much information on how to shoot the bow and arrow? We were on our own and we learned everything the hard way, trail and error and by watching others at tournaments. Since my dad started the archery club within a club, everyone thought he knew what he was doing. The classes got bigger and I started to help teach regularly with him at the age of 12. Now we are going to some local archery Field tournaments in OA District 5 and getting more involved with the OA. There were people, not conservation club members that wanted to learn to shoot archery. They were not allowed to shoot with us on conservation club property. My dad or someone found some wooded property north of Columbus along Alum Creek where we could setup targets and shoot. State land, no lease they just let us use it for our archery. With some new archery club members we built a 28 target field range (2 Field units) for our club activates, no club house just picnic tables. Now we where a regular archery club and anybody could shoot with us. We started hosting OA scheduled Field tournaments to make some money and enjoy shooting with other archers. We called our Field tournaments, shoots. I guess because we went and shot. My dad and myself would go and help new interested archery groups in the Columbus area to learn what archery was all about. Some formed their own club and most affiliated with the OA/NFAA. In joining the NFAA/OA as an individual, you eligible to compete in any OA or NFAA tournament. It was a dual membership for individuals and clubs to help promote their archery. As an individual at that time you could only join the NFAA/OA through an affiliated OA archery club. I felt this was to force or encourage new archers to join and support their Archery. Many archers joined a club just to shoot in OA/NFAA tournaments. Not really active in club activities’. In any organizations official tournament you had to be a member of that organization, seems fair. Most new archers felt they needed to join an archery club to learn how to shoot but some just joined to shoot in tournaments. It is not the same today you don’t have to be a member of an affiliated archery club to join the NFAA or the state affiliate but I feel you should. The NFAA was trying to build membership to show the states Department of Fish and Game or Department of Natural Resources that there was an interest in bowhunting to help get an Archery Only Hunting season, if the state didn’t have one. But at first we had to bowhunt during gun hunting season in camouflage, a little scary.

If you wanted to hunt deer with a bow at that time in Ohio, you had to hunt during gun season, no choose. We were in camouflage to get close to the game for a humane shot, few tree blinds we hunted on the ground. We couldn’t take a 150 yard shot with our bows and hit anything. We didn’t want to wound and cause undue suffering to the animal. We petitioned the Fish & Game for an Archery only season. But they felt the bow was a primitive weapon was inefficient for a kill on big game, deer. It didn’t seem to matter to them other states had a Archery only season to hunt. We had to convince them with a larger membership group of interest in bowhunting. We thought it would help and a larger membership was needed. We scheduled and set up demonstrations with them to attend. In a safe area we set up a galvanized bucket full of sand with a piece of glass behind it. We would ask one of their officers to shoot into the bucket of sand with his gun. He would shoot and sand flow everywhere but it didn’t break the glass. As a young archer I would from the same distance shoot an arrow with my target bow. It shoot through the bucket and broke the glass. The gun has shock, the bow has penetration. I believe it was in 1955 that Ohio established an Archery Only Season to bowhunt.

We started getting a lot more bowhunters into our clubs and the OA state archery organization was growing. No one knew that the archers in Ohio had supported the NAA back in 1879 when organized target archery started. But I found out later some individuals from Ohio where involved but not as a state archery organization and they don’t correspond with the OA. There where individual NAA clubs in Ohio but invisible to us. It seems that most new bowhunters wanted to join an archery club to learn more before going bowhunting. Good idea even today. But most bowhunters don’t join any archery activity today. I feel because it is hard to find an archery club, maybe. You can buy archery equipment almost anywhere now. New bowhunters today can get their equipment before they look for an archery club, if they do at all? New bowhunters hear of archery but can’t find an real archery shop or club. If you go to a sporting goods store they sell bowhunting equipment not competition archery equipment. So bowhunters feel they are on their own just like we did in 1951. Most bowhunters are converted gun hunters to extend their hunting season. With the Web you have something, if you know what question to ask?

There was some NAA archery competition in Ohio when we started but we didn’t know of it. The vast majority of Field archers were practicing to bowhunt at that time. New archers would have to find an archery club, get their bowhunting equipment and then learn to shoot for bowhunting on a Field range. Most of our bowhunting was as a club group. Someone knew of a good area to hunt and we planned a hunt and setup a drive, of course during hunting season. We would station archers at an outlet area when deer could be driven or scared into moving. A few archers would start a drive a half mile away. Pushing any deer to the stationed archers. You rarely got a standing shot, practice at moving targets was very popular and needed. Today most sporting goods stores sell archery equipment including tree stands. Few archery groups have drives today. Archery equipment sold in stores in big stores is to bowhunt with, but they don’t carry competitive archery equipment. There is a difference. Very few sporting goods stores that sell any archery equipment know how to set up a bow to the individual. Fewer have archery classes even today much less know where there is an archery club.

Archery has been a apart of my life since the age of 10. Through the years my Archery experience has been more than a pleasant pastime. As a kid shooting in tournaments, it was just fun. We didn’t know what serious practice or shooting was all about. Archery has been a personal educational experiences that I have transferred over into my everyday life. It took a while for my dad and I to realize how important the dominate eye in shooting really was, but we learned. We knew nothing about a good release and then everybody starting used a finger release to shot. Of course we started our shooting with Longbows and wood arrows. Shooting was a personal effort. Learning how to shoot and not hit your bowarm with the bowstring was improvement. It didn’t seem to matter much witch eye you shot with instinctive or who won something. You just learned were to point to hit your target. Looking back we didn’t have very many good shooters around but we didn’t know what good was.

Many new archers shoot with the wrong eye and enjoy their effort at archery, it can be done. Many left handed shooters shot right handed. They did so because it was hard to find left handed equipment. If you had to aim three feet to the right to hit the target, that is what you did. Using a sight was more of a problem with techniques and hitting your target. It is harder to aim off to the right with a sight, it’s suppose to be on your target. Through the OA annual shoot schedule we had our small groups from our club going to Field archery tournament in our OA District 5 and some went to the OA State Championships like us. The OA had divided the state into eight areas or districts because of all the archers.

Chapter 5

Progress or Just Change

There was very little indoor archery shooting that we knew of except club shoots for fun at that time. Also there were only Men, Women and youth classifications for Field tournament competition. The recurve bow was becoming popular, compound bow where still a dream. My dad found an old quintet hut a club member was not using. The NFAA had a Flint round that was designed for indoor shooting that simulated the outdoor Field round in the mid 50’s. Our club started shooting during the winter in the quintet hut. Straw bales were just set on the flood. As outdoors the adults would shoot regulation distance of 20 yds. and then let the kids shoot closer. A few of us kids didn’t like that. We kids convinced the adults to let us shoot regulation distances. It was just for club practice in the winter to start, no leagues at this time. A lot of the accessories we have today didn’t even exist. It was in 1955 at an OA state field championship that I first saw my first sight on a bow.

Recurve bows were starting to replace the longbow and aluminum arrows were starting to be used. Aluminum arrows were expensive and most still shot wood arrows. This was a new game in shooting, indoors and close. With a sight and other accessories they were shooting much better scores. Shooting with sights and with the smoother shooting recurve bow archers were working on good shooting form. The NFAA and OA had a problem, the competition wasn’t fair, accessories started to increase scores. A new class was established for the sight shooters, separating them