Having been reminded of an incident from my past by the History Channel, I feel compelled to share.
Sometime in the early 1980s, a cousin and I were coming home in the afternoon from a fruitless deer hunting day in the area of Bear Prairie, northeast of Washougal.
We entered a long, straight southbound section of road going slightly downhill. Several hundred yards in front of us, a large, dark animal jumped off the high side of a cut from west to east. It seemed the animal launched itself from several feet above the road and landed on all fours, in the middle of the road. We were both thinking a deer or maybe an elk.
Then it stood up. It was big enough and tall enough to immediately get our undivided attention. If this were a man in a gorilla suit, he had just jumped 20-some feet in the air from up on the bank to the center of the blacktop. It stood there, erect for a few seconds, then jumped across the remaining road. Upon our arrival at the approximate spot, it appeared the animal’s jump had cleared a fence in close proximity to the road. Another 20-some feet!
I turned to my cousin as soon as it made its exit and said, “Did you see that?”
His answer was, “I won’t tell anybody if you don’t tell anybody.” This response was due to the public’s skepticism over sightings of Bigfoot.
We didn’t get out of the truck to check for tracks on the bank or fence area. Having seen something that huge gave us pause.
So, some 30 years later, having arrived at close to 89 years on this ball, I have become immune to barbs thrown my way. If telling this remembrance might add to those barbs, so be it.
I am reminded of the adage, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” Sorry, cousin, but it was a memory that I just had to share. Will keep your name a secret and weather the adage.
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