I quit smoking sixteen years ago after puffing for far too long and any time I get to thinking about starting again, aside from any health issues, I just look at the price of a pack of Marlboros now. Also, I didn't realize what a nasty habit it was until I quit, and kicking the nicotine habit was just about the hardest thing I've ever done. (Cold turkey---no patches or gum.) I still worry that I waited too late to quit and that it will come back to haunt me one day. It's a shame that it caught up with Sam Curtis.

Another lesson from the old-timers we should listen to.

Dave, Sorry to hear about your loss. That knife will something to remind you of Sam everytime you use it. We also lost another war hero this year when Russel Dunham passed. We are losing the WWII vets fast, too fast.

another big loss to the hunting community.

I recently learned of Sam Curtis' death in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (MT)--no obituary has been published thus far. For some reason, I thought he lived in Missoula, but I guess he lived in Bozeman. I wish I had known him. My condolences to all of you who did.

Sad loss, God bless Sam and his family, my prayers to him.

May he rest in peace.

Too bad. 69 is just a bit on the young side.

Go with God, Mr. Sam.

Very to the point. I hope others can learn from his last words.

I sure hope people learn from that. Sorry about your loss.

Some of us who shoot are 'knife men'. When I give a knife to someone, it is because they are worthy of it, and it has long been one of the highest of gifts between men. His giving the knife to you, of all who could have had it, says worlds about the ground you have covered together. The time is coming, when you will pass it on.

Since Sam carried it as a 'keepsake', who knows but what you had given it to him, first. My Granddad carried two pocketknives; one for hard work, one for delicate. When my Dad passed away, I inherited his old, worn knives. Only a special child or friend will understand this.

Sorry for your loss, Dave. May the Big Boss give Sam a special patch of mountains, just his own.

Blue

Sarg is right! How about a picture of you with the knife? Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks to Mr. Curtis for his wisdom!

DEP, condolences on your loss. Lift your glass to his memory and do what you can to carry on his tradition to others.

Zermoid;

Normally I am skeptical of anything I hear these days, from global warming to evolution. Too much science is money or politics driven.

But take this from a guy WITH cancer who has never smoked in his life: on this one thing science is right on. For many years I was an EMT and paramedic, and I never met a patient with emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or any other form of COPD who did not have a smoker background. The deepest impression on me was the guy who had no larynx due to throat cancer; he spoke by putting a speaker up to his throat, and smoked by inserting the cigarette into his stoma (a hole in the base of his throat) and sucking in.

I am proof you don't have to smoke to get cancer, but there's too much actual evidence on the ground linking smoking to a host of diseases including cancer to ignore. As hard as the (fantastically rich) tobacco lobby fought these findings for generations, it is almost a surprise they finally prevailed. But prevailed they have.

One person gets cancer after 34 years as a nonsmoker and another is dying of cancer having never smoked a day. If the first guy lived 34 years smokefree and then gets cancer this might suggest that there are more than one thing causing lung cancer . Many people smoke and get cancer, people live as nonsmokers and get cancer. It is my firm opinion that the advice so often given "Don't Do that, You might Die" doesn't recognise that yup, we're gonna die anyway no how safely we attempt to carry on with our lives. If somebody says "Don't drive that car, you might die!" they are completely correct, you might, car accidents are a major cause of death, are you afraid to drive then? Should you be? Now they link cell phones to brain cancer also, but you need that cell, just like you need that auto, so you don't chuck it in the pond.
I smoke a coupla three smokes a day, cause I enjoy 'em. Moderation is my rule not abstenance. I will live my life till it is over and as far as the cancer goes, I have had soo many toxic exposures in my life I should be dead of cancer already. There was the chemical fumes in one factory, and the Toluol in another, Asbestos in yet another factory and soot from all the chimneys I've swept. I never expected to make the half century, but I did, still smokin' still healthy and strong for the most part. I will live my life, regardless of the myriad death threats, and enjoy it while I'm in it. Quality is more important than quantity anyway, because while it is important to remember the past and hope for the future, you have to live in the here and now. So Live!

The point is that a good man and fellow hunter is gone way too soon.

Whatever anyone else thinks, he believed smoking caused his sickness, and THAT is what he was attempting to pass on.

It seems to me that he was thinking of others at a time when a lot of us would probably be more inclined to think only of ourselves.

Vaya con Dios, Amigo