DAKOTA COUNTRY
NOTEBOOK
Observations of life on the northern plains
Statehood
Running out of time
I by Bill Mitzel
I sometimes wonder what a final outdoor article might contain if I were given the chance to write it, if I knew“ my time” was forthcoming. Some of my friends didn’ t get that chance. Tony Dean and Dan Nelson come to mind, both gone much too soon.
Most of my outdoor friends are gone. There were many. My memories of thousands of outdoor adventures with those great folks are profound. As glorious as the memories are, they remain with pain, my magnificent wife Bobbi at the top of the list. My eyes tear as I mention her, for there has been no greater gift in my life than her amazing partnership of 60 years, so much of it spent outdoors.
My rigid, wrinkled hands have tied thousands of fishing knots, been pierced with fish hooks more times than memory serves, most freed from captivity with a needle-nose pliers. These hands have released many fish hooks from others, captured hundreds of ring-necked roosters from heavy grass, lifted hundreds more water-logged ducks from native Dakota sloughs, corralled countless geese across frozen fields, hoisted thousands of fish into personal possession.
Page 80, Dakota Country, September 2025 www. dakotacountrymagazine. com