A letter to Danilo...the world is your oyster

Welcome to the world, Danilo.

It’s much bigger than the hospital where you were born, and even bigger than Atlanta where you’ll live with your mother and father. Parts of it are scary, but most of it is wonderful. See as much of it as you can.

There’s little doubt you’ll get to know Montana, my corner of the world. You have a passel of relatives out here. It’s where your mother was born and raised. She left to see the world, met your father, and found a home in the South. We’re still waiting for her to come back.

That’s how we feel about Montana. We just can’t imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else.

At least I can’t.

You see, I’m a hunter, and there’s no place better than Montana for a hunter.

For a third of the year about all I do is hunt. I used to spend a lot of time in the mountains chasing elk and deer. I was a pretty good elk hunter. Your mother was raised on elk meat. Most of my days now, however, are spent on the prairie hunting birds - grouse, ducks, partridge and pheasant. The flatter terrain is easier on my knees and I get to shoot something nearly every day.

In Georgia, where you live, folks hunt whitetail deer from tree stands, and bobwhite quail from horse-drawn wagons. Most of the hunting is on private land. If you don’t have connections with a landowner or are willing to pay for the privilege, you can’t hunt.

We don’t have that problem out here. There is a wealth of public land in Montana. It’s open to anyone willing to walk or ride horseback.

You come from a family of walkers, but learn to ride horses if you can. There’s no finer way to see wild country than from the back of a horse.

And there’s no finer wild country than is found in Montana. There are huge roadless tracts of land here inhabited by grizzly bears and mountain lions, endless snow-covered peaks reaching to the sky, and miles of prairie stretching to the horizon.

There still aren’t many residents. Far fewer folks live in our whole state than live in Atlanta, and that suits your grandfather, who spends most of his time in the company of dogs, just fine.

But I’m certainly looking forward to meeting you.

Welcome to the world, Danilo. It’s your oyster.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]