Jack O'Malley Interview w/ Dave Richey
The Michigan Outdoor Writers Association has been an important part of my life for many years, and although I've attended only a few conferences over the past 30 years because of scheduling conflicts, the bi-annual meetings were still important to me.
I attended the MOWA conference in Cadillac three or four years ago, and came away with the idea that attending conferences is important. For example, I've attended every Outdoor Writers Association of America conference since 1976 and plan to be in Rochester, Minnesota for that conference in about a month.
Such meetings are all about personal priorities. It's not that I don't want to attend MOWA conferences, but they often have coincided with OWAA in the past. I chose to go with the national group because I often was a seminar speaker, panel moderator or on the Board of Directors. I had to be there.
MOWA and OWAA conference coming up.
Between all of that I had to juggle a hectic work schedule. Something had to give, and sadly MOWA was it. However, those things have changed in recent years.
I like to think I've changed my life a bit. I retired seven years ago, and then we cared for my father. So … again, another set of priorities, who went, who stayed, and all that. Dad passed away three years ago last October, and I've been fighting the eye battle for several years, and the progress had been going downhill. Three surgeries between Jan. 31 and Feb. 15 last year has helped my vision but it's not, nor ever will be, perfect. I'm tentatively schedule for one soon. So we plan to attend the upcoming MOWA conference in Marquette in about three weeks. Then we plan to visit the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame where I was inducted as a Legendary Communicators a few years ago. The NFWFHF is in Hayward, Wisc., and I have friends there and perhaps I can put together a one- or two-day muskie fishing trip. It's been almost four years since wea friend and I have seen each other, and a nice fish would be great.Visiting the Hall of Fame will be fun.
Travel the past four years has been difficult for many reasons. Now, we are trying to make a difference. We want to see our old friends, we want to travel some, we want the freedom to move around as long as our creaky old bones will allow us to spend quality time outdoors.
After the OWAA conference, I plan to spend a day with a man in Minnesota who, like me, collects books on turkey hunting. He'll tell me his turkey tales, and I'll tell him mine, and since we've never met, we hope to turn it into a great experience sharing our love for great turkey titles. Kay and I want to spend time doing things together. We need to get out and spread our wings once again, in what we know is a vain attempt to regain some of the years we've lost. We are both in what some would call the autumn of our lives, and I want to see all there is to see before the winter arrives.How much travel can be done at today's price of gas? We'll going to give it a try, and then drive to Cincinnati to spend some time with Ann Clark, a member of the Archery Hall of Fame and a hunting buddy. Friends are friends, and going to visit with old and new friends is important to both of us.
We want to and need to revisit old friends and do some fishing.
We spent time with our old friend, Gordie Charles of Traverse City, just an hour before he passed away a couple of years ago. There have been other friends who we didn't get to see before their death, and we both felt humbled by Gordie and the gracious way he greeted us when he knew he was at death's door.
I would have felt terrible having missed that opportunity by staying home. Friends are just that, and they deserve to have old buddies come by to visit before they fish around their last bend. Gordie, I know, enjoyed having us there. So, we'll soon be seeing some old and dear friends. Our job will be to catch up on what has happened in each others lives, remember all the good times and forget the bad times. I want to see someone smile when they see me, and I want them to see me smile at them. I want them to know our four- or five-year absence wasn't intentional, merely speed bumps in the highway of life. I want to share mutual memories of good times together. The killing of a pair of bears in two cases, hunting deer in another, and calling bobcats and coyotes from a blind. That the animals didn't show up is meaningless; what does matter is we shared an outdoor experience and loved it. There are a dozen or more snowshoe hare hunts to reminisce about with two men. There was a coyote hunt, and fishing the surf and trolling Lake Huron in areas where news reports are confusing, mixed up or completely wrong. The salmon fishing hasn't died at Rogers City. It's just that wrong information got out, and people stayed away. My plans are to go over there and fish in August as I've done for 25 or 30 years, and by doing so, I'll be making new memories. Isn't that what the outdoor life is all about? I can't wait to get going. This will be fun.
