Outdoors Influence and Beyond

By Brian G.Schommer

Influence is defined as the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. For most of us, when we take a liking to something or begin to show interest in different activities, we can pinpoint an individual or a combination of people, places and experiences that influenced our decision to give whatever it is a try. For many, it is a parent, not to be confused with apparent, that helped spark our interest. If not dad or mom, often it is a close uncle or aunt, cousin or other family member. I have been giving a lot of thought to one of the greatest influences in my own life and, as I write this column on his 91st birthday, it seems only fitting that I pay a little homage to a man who so many times has been like a father to me… my Uncle Bill Schommer.

My dad passed away at the age of 46 in 1970 of a massive heart attack leaving mom with two high school aged daughters and a rambunctious, almost four-year-old son. Dad came from a family of 13 children; seven boys and six girls. They grew up in different yet similar times to what we live in now. There were plenty of hardships, economic and political unrest and concerns for the future. One thing for sure, with 12 other siblings, if you needed someone to talk to, you didn’t have to look far for someone to confide in. I was far too young when dad died to remember any interaction between him and his brother Bill, I am confident that they both had a lot of influence on each other. To start off with, they had very similar taste in women as on June 2nd of 1951, William and Ray Schommer (brothers) married Marilyn and Eileen Burr (sisters) at the same time, same church. While I often wonder what it would have been like had dad lived as I grew into my teens, it is only speculation as to what type of influences he would have had on me.

Uncle Bill is an outdoorsman and always has been. A hunter to the core, on a recent phone call, he was out squirrel hunting… at 90 years old… squirrel hunting. Many stories have been told of the countless tree rats that he has harvested over the years with his classic “And I shot ‘em in the eye,” comment within the story… at least once. I have from a very good source that this was the final result for at least one area squirrel on that recent hunt. Growing up in a household of 13 where money was tight, you learned to live by the words “waste not, want not.”

He still gets out on the occasional pheasant hunt and gets just as excited as he did when I went with him for the first time over 40 years ago when the cackling of a flushed rooster rings out through the fall air. He treated me just like my cousins Billy and Mark on that first hunt. I remember being frustrated on our first drive through the high grass with the high-energy Brittany Spaniels having to carry the old single shot 20 gauge UNLOADED. I passed gun safety training… if a bird were to get up in front of me, I would not be able to shoot it. Billy and Mark both explained they had to do it when they were younger as well. What I remember more is that Uncle Bill walked next to me and we talked about the importance of being safe and the responsibility we had to make sure we always knew where our barrel was facing. He made sure that I realized that it was a privilege to be allowed on other people’s land for hunting and to respect those people, the land and the game we were in search of. When I got to put a shell in the chamber on the next pass, a nice rooster broke out of a small clump of brush. I pulled up, put my bead on the bird and squeezed the trigger. The bird stayed in flight and Uncle Bill took aim and let one rip from his Browning A5, ending its flight. I looked at him waiting for a disappointed look as I missed. He smiled and said to me, “we all miss sometimes.”

As his family has grown, with grandkids (and spouses) that hunt and enjoy the outdoors, I see the influence that he not only has had on my life but the lives of so many others. There are so many stories of “Uncle Bill’s Cabin” where because the family had grown so much, a bunkhouse had to be built. One of my favorite memories there was on a weekend years ago that I went up to help with some tree removal and other stuff by the lake. I asked Uncle Bill if they caught much for fish off the dock. “Grab a pole and go find out,” he said. I went down off the dock with a yellow Mr. Twister on a Jig Head and began to cast. I was ready to give up but walked along the dock back towards shore with my lure in the water. Out of nowhere there was a huge SPLASH (I almost fell off the dock) and I realized that a fish of decent size was under the dock the entire time and decided to hit on my last ditch effort of “dock trolling” (not sure if that is even a thing, but… it worked). A nice large mouth bass was successfully caught… my first ever. I ran up to the cabin with it and I can still see the smile on Uncle Bill’s face. “That’s a nice one,” he laughed. “We either clean it and eat it or you better get it back in the water.” “Catch and Release” was put into play and that fish lived to see another day.

There is no doubt that when it comes to my major “outdoor” influence, he is one that is shared by many. More important than the development of the love for the outdoors is the overall influence that he has had on me and so many others. Much of my character, at least the good traits can be tied directly to him. He has always been a hard-working, straight shooting (not just with a firearm), tough as nails but also as caring as anyone could ever be. Thank you for being one of my major influences… let’s get out sometime soon and enjoy the great outdoors (Billy and Mark, too!!!)