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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,070
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Campfire Regular
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I do not believe Patrick should get such praise for simply following me and my friends around and writing about what we did. Racid was actually a man named Jack. Retch was my friend Dave. When he wrote about every boy needs to dig a hole, Dave aka Retch and I had just finished digging a huge hole in the neighbors field to use as a pit trap. His square bowed canoe was a direct copy of the one Dave and I built and attempted to float down the Roaring Fork River, with the same results. His mountain car was a dead ringer for my old Jeep Wagoneer. The proof in the pudding was his spot on description of my grandmothers and my relationship. He told the reader the events happened in Idaho, when in real life it happened in a small valley in long ago Colorado. My mother read everything he wrote and would remark while laughing "remember when you and Dave did that exact same thing?" I got to meet him once and he was quite the gentleman. He will be missed.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,831 Likes: 9
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,831 Likes: 9 |
He did have a way of putting a picture in your mind with his words. I can't tell you how many times I had tears in my eyes after reading some of his passages
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Absolutely deserves every dollar his writing ever earned. Anyone with his talent for making people laugh should be well rewarded. ^this^ I can't imagine the total hours of pure enjoyment and stomach aches from laughter he's brought to his readers, but he deserves every penny he's made. I wish him the very best, and hope he's enjoying his retirement. I met him at a book signing back in the early 90's. There wasn't the chance for real conversation, but I feel privileged to have at least met him.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. --Winston Churchill
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Joined: Jan 2003
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2003
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He did have a way of putting a picture in your mind with his words. I'm picturing him bringing the deer he THOUGHT was dead down the mountain on his bicycle
One shot, one kill........ It saves a lot of ammo!
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 12,359
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2005
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He did have a way of putting a picture in your mind with his words. I can't tell you how many times I had tears in my eyes after reading some of his passages I was thinking, what you were typing.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,063
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2010
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One time McManus published a story in the Missouri Conservationist. One reader liked it so much that she wrote a letter to the editor urging McManus to quit whatever else it was he did and "write, write, write!" Nobody told her he had already figured that out. The funniest stories are those that are just a RCH past the truth. McManus, Foxworthy, . . . who?
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 52,680
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 52,680 |
Thank you Pat. I enjoyed every laugh hope you enjoy your retirement My sentiments exactly. He was here in town one time at a local bookstore signing books but due to work I could not get there to meet him.
Liberalism is a mental disorder that leads to social disease.
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 7,437
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2004
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I truly enjoyed Pat's writings through the years. May God bless him with health and strength.
μολὼν λαβέ
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 2,054
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2001
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My left-wing former father-in-law would have never found McManus if it wasn't for me recognizing their similar troubles with trailers. Father-in-law laughed until, like many of us, he cried reading a Pat McManus story on trailers. Soon, father-in-law owned several McManus books even though he was neither a hunter or fisherman.
Growing up in a rural family where we produced most of our own food makes me remember a McManus line about subsistence farming that said something like 'back then, we had a personal relationship with our food.' Yes indeed, I got to know well dozens of chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs and calves before eating them. It is OK that Mr. McManus has retired since, at age 60, I'm probably one of the younger people who had a youth recognizable in his stories. There's a generation or two now that might see some humor but just can't understand the full meaning of his writings.
The unexpected twist in a story line, the subtle pictures he painted with words and the ability to convey stories much like we've lived made Pat McManus a treasure. He was truly a gift from God for many of us.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,522 Likes: 24
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,522 Likes: 24 |
It hurt but we survived the retirement of Gary Larson and his infamous 'Far Side'. It'll hurt but we'll survive this. Both are and will be missed, to be sure.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 241
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 241 |
The last Pat McManus I red was "The Horse In The Garage."
A book. The horse, the house's big lot, the garage/stable, the kids. A side-splitter because I think it was true. Now that I hear his age, it must be.
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 14,006 Likes: 6
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 14,006 Likes: 6 |
I grew up reading Pat McManus articles in Outdoor Life. When I got married I reread them all for my wife.
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,339
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2011
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I have all of his humor books. I have literally laughed til I cried several times while reading them. I started reading them in high school in the mid 90's. Several times I got some odd looks during study hall when I would start laughing uncontrollably. I've read several stories to my wife who would end laughing at the story, and at my attempts to read and not laugh.
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,066
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2002
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I too grew up reading, no actually studying his work. And loving every bit of it. My sons read every one of his books that I have. When one became a camp counselor at a youth camp in Wyoming he "borrowed" my books and read his kids one of the stories each night. He said they all howled with laughter and Pat's legacy continues!
There's 2 dates they carve on your tombstone. Everyone knows what they mean. What's more important is time that is known as the little dash inbetween.
Razz
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 25,143 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 25,143 Likes: 2 |
Loved reading his stories as a kid!
Thanks Pat!
“Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 25,143 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 25,143 Likes: 2 |
It hurt but we survived the retirement of Gary Larson and his infamous 'Far Side'. It'll hurt but we'll survive this. Both are and will be missed, to be sure. Did he actually write stories? I've just seen the comics.
“Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 39,301
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 39,301 |
Pat's book on writing was a great read.
The first time I shot myself in the head...
Meniere's Sucks Big Time!!!
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605 |
have a set of his books sitting around waiting for my nieces and nephews to get just a bit older when uncle gets stuck babysitting....
Last edited by rattler; 01/31/15.
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605 |
also have one of Ed Zern's books that i found in a used book shop out in Washington.....least if its still with the rest of my stuff and Scott didnt steal it
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 10,455
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 10,455 |
Dad gave me THEY SHOOT CANOES, DON�T THEY? for Christmas, 1982, the day before my son was born. I worked 3-11 that night in ICU, but we only had two patients in pretty good shape, so I spent most of the shift with my wife and son in L&D while Mom, Dad, My aunt, and my brother babysat the girls. They started celebrating the new grandson/nephew before I got home, so I had to play catch-up. The folks went then drove home (they were in no shape to walk) and my brother stayed. He read aloud the first half of "All You Ever Wanted to Know About Live Bait but Were Afraid to Ask", and I read the second, crying and holding my belly all the way. Tried to start the next story, but had to quit. Couldn't see the page anymore. We laughed ourselves to sleep that night.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard
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