I'll never forget the day my long journey as outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star started.
It was a beautiful April day in 1980, and I was eager to explore my new surroundings. Fresh out of Wisconsin, I didn't know much about Missouri and Kansas. But I had heard the buzz about the new Truman Lake and the fishing below its dam, so I set out to get a look.
I stopped in a modest bait and tackle shop at the top of a hill, and I was greeted by a bear of a man dressed in bib overalls and a ballcap. Norm Trautman was a character. We started talking about the fishing below the dam, and he started tossing out the type of superlatives I would expect a bait-shop owner to use.
When I kidded him about that, he reached behind the counter and tossed me a handful of marabou jigs. I told him I had to pay, and he answered that those lures were loaners.
"If you don't catch anything, come back here and get your money back," he joked.
I climbed down the chunk rock below the dam and cast one of the small jigs into the frothy current. I immediately got a hit and reeled in a hard-fighting white bass.
I proceeded to catch other white bass, channel catfish, largemouth bass and two walleyes. Just when I was feeling pretty good about myself, I glanced over and saw other fishermen carrying big stringers of fish back to their vehicles.
I went back to Norm's bait shop and paid for my "loaner" lures, then continued my exploration tour. I saw boats come into Drake Harbor transporting huge paddlefish. And camouflaged hunters were bringing in turkeys at a check station.
I remember thinking to myself, "Man, I'm going to like Missouri."
Thirty-six years later, that hasn't changed. I was a pup back in those days, dashing around to explore every part of Missouri and Kansas that I could. Now I'm more like an old dog. The heart is still passionate about the outdoors, but the rest of me is aging.
How did this happen? Where has the time gone?
More than half of my 65 years have been spent at The Star. And this job has been a wild ride.
But like they say, all good things have to come to an end. And I've reached that point.
I recently took a buyout from the newspaper and I am retiring. This is my goodbye.
I still plan to write a book, freelance articles for magazines and give presentations on the outdoors. I might even be back to write freelance articles for The Star. But it won't be the same.
That's OK, though. It's time to move on to a new life.
When I transition, I will carry plenty of memories of a life well-spent.
