…was me.
Darren Nix was my friend. He showed his friendship towards me in many ways. However, nothing said friendship more than when he traveled life with me, in the midst of my newbishness.
Go ahead… Google newb. I’ll wait on you.
I worked on a ranch for about a year while I was at Howard Payne University. I learned many things, spent a lot of time outside, and enjoyed almost every moment of it. One afternoon, as things began to wind down, word came that a fawn was found caught in a fence down the road.
Something, or someone had spooked it. It tried to jump the barbwire fence, but got snagged by it instead. It suffered a broken hip, and was very near to death when we found it. The owner of the ranch asked if I wanted it? Not knowing anything, I said sure!
Long story short, I put the dear out of its misery, skinned and quartered it.
To my law enforcement friends, I apologize. Hopefully the statute of limitations is over by now. If not… *cough* Well…
Back to the story!
The next thing I know, I’m at Darren’s doorstep, ice cooler in hand. There I was, still in my work clothes, dragging a large cooler behind me, when Darren opened the door.
“Hey bud, what ch’ya got there?” He asked.
“Uh…Well, you see. There was this baby dear…” I started to explain.
“Tim, stop. Shut up, don’t say another word, and get in here quickly.” Darren said, cutting my explanation short.
We got inside, he opened up the cooler, and laughed at the sight. “Tim, you have no clue do you?” he said to me.
“What? He was dead anyway when we found him…err, almost at least.” I was getting a little worried.
“Well,” Darren said. “lets get on the phone, it looks like meat is on the menu tonight!”
I smiled at that. You see, I had no idea how to prepare dear meat, but Darren did.
Darren was well connected in the school. He had friends in every department, and he not only found people to eat, but got them to bring everything else that was needed! It was something like a church pot-luck meal. Salads, chips and dips, cola, even deserts.
The hip area was ruined. He cut it up, fried it up, and fed it to his dog, Doug. Needless to say, Doug went to be happy that night. We took another quarter of the dear, and prepared it in various ways. Some of it went to chili, some was fried, and I can’t remember it all. There was enough to feed about 10 people that evening. And the other half, was turned into jerky. I gave a quarter of it to Darren, since he did all the work, and I kept the rest.
He never made fun of me concerning the legality of the issue. He never said a disparaging word concerning the incident, nor my stupidity of my actions. He just took it in stride, as part of being my friend. He had a way of making the most akward moments, something to be cherished.
Tim
Posted by Tim Dahl 
Posted by Tim Dahl 