An Engineering Technician Supervisor by day, Tim has been telling stories since he can remember. After some friend convinced him to write some of them down, he found that some places were willing to publish them. Some of them even paid.

Grandma didn't really disapprove of hunting and I know she liked elk meat. I think her real objection was that these men were out by themselves without having a woman to keep an eye on them; because who knows what they might get up to on their own.

I wasn't allowed to go with them until I was 16 years old because my Mother had similar objections. She also stated several times in my presence that a young boy shouldn't be exposed to the teachings of five or six dirty old men. The fall of the year I turned 16 my Grandfather and I managed to wear her down and she consented to my going along on the trip.

There was another new member along for this particular hunt his name was Bob. He had been the manager of the local Co-op for thirty years. He had just retired the year before. Bob had been so busy with his business that he could never get away to go on the long hunts, but now being retired he had enough time for lots of things. One of those things he now had time for was to notice all the things that were wrong with him. He had a backache, stomach problems his blood pressure was elevated etc. He gave us the list in excruciating detail on the way up to the hunting cabin. I think we were all tired of hearing about it, I know I was.

Red Sims was driving and I was falling asleep to sound of Bobs medical condition. Red suddenly slammed on the brakes and yelled "elk." We all piled out and sure enough, there was a line of elk walking across a clearing about a quarter of a mile up the hill from the highway. Bob was the last man to exit the van and by the time he got out the elk had pretty much disappeared into the trees.

"Where's the elk?" he asked. Red told me later that the whole plan popped into his head fully formed at that instant. "Why they're right there at he edge of that clearing." He said pointing to the clearing that the elk had just vacated. Mean while motioning to the rest of us to be quiet behind Bob's back. We all remained mum while Bob complained that he still couldn't see any elk. "They're right there Bob. Can't you see them?"

When Bob admitted that he could not, Red started to question him about his eyesight. Telling him that perhaps he should get his eyes checked when he got back to town. We all piled back in the van and proceeded to the cabin.

Now the hunting cabin was what you might call primitive. It consisted of four log walls and a roof. There was a front door on the north side of the building and a back door on the south. The front door let out on a covered porch and the back door led to the outhouse. There was a set of bunk beds on each side and a sink with hot or cold running water, provided you only wanted cold and you were willing to hand work the pump to make it run. There was no electricity. The 'kitchen' stove ran on wood and also provided the only heat. Coleman white gas lanterns provided the light.

Sleeping in a room with six 'dirty old men' was problematic. Everybody washed before eating or cooking but all over bathing was frowned upon. We were, after all elk hunting so anything as civilized as bathing was out. The cabin was large enough to sleep eight men but there were only four bunks. Since I was both the youngest and the newest member of the group, I of course, was assigned one of the fold-a-way cots.

I believe that all six of those guys were in contention for the world snoring championship. There were times during the first couple of nights when I was afraid that the walls wouldn't hold up under the constant vibration. The meals were certainly not up to the five star standard either and this added a whole new dimension to the atmosphere after dark. The snores were punctuated with muffled explosions and a sort of irregular moaning as whatever concoction we had for supper made it's way violently though our digestive tracts. On the second night, I got up and threw open both of the cabin's windows even though the temperature outside was in the twenties. The smell was so strong that, a single match would have sent us all to glory. Even without the match, I think that some of us might have succumbed to asphyxiation. The windows remained open at night for the rest of the trip, even through the snowstorm, and no one complained.

The lighting arrangement was the key to Red's plan. Coleman lanterns run on white gas. When the gas runs out the lantern naturally stop producing light, but not all at once. The light from the lantern dims slowly. It takes about ten minutes before the light goes completely out. Red made sure that no one refilled the main lantern with gas and he took every opportunity to dig at Bob for his 'poor' vision. Red or one of the others would spot some fictitious animal in the woods and try to get Bob to see it. By the third day Bob really was starting to worry about his poor vision.

It was about eight o'clock that night, supper was over, and the poker game was in full swing when the light began to dim a little. After a few moments Bob looked up from his cards and said "Say isn't it getting a bit dark in here?" "No Bob" said Red "It's just your eyes again." The poker game continued unabated. A few minutes later the darkness was becoming quite apparent but no one paid any attention but Bob. I could see his eyes looking around the room in a kind of panic.

Finally, the light flickered and went out all together. The sky was overcast there was no moon or stars it was like being in a cave. My grandfather said later it was darker that six yards up a hog's butt. But the poker game went on. Bets were made, chips were thrown in, cards were dealt. Finally the bet made it around to Bob.

There was a pause, then Red said in an absolutely neutral tone "Bob, you going to bet or fold."

We couldn't see Bob or anything else either, but we heard him lay his cards on the table and push his chair back. "Boys," He says "I'm stone blind, you guys got to get me in to a doctor."