With luck, discipline my American Dream only gets better
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Good Lord! I've made it to a tender, youth-defiant 59 years in this vivacious American Dream of mine so far.
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Amazing, really, when one considers the adventurous gauntlet of danger and oftentimes sheer stupidity of my rather intense rock 'n' roll, bowhunting life.
Thank you, Lord, for taking good care of me when my guard was down.
I am one lucky SOB, I assure you. Hallelujah and pass the camouflage walker. I remain drunk on freedom.
It all started quite harmlessly, really.
Born before the mushroom clouds of WWII had fully dissipated, my timing couldn't have been better. Dad had just returned from killing Japanese and Nazi monsters, and the freedom secured by the Greatest Generation fueled an industrial revolution the likes of which no society had ever imagined.
Dreams were limited only by one's work ethic, energy, passion and entrepreneurial spirit.
Within that innovative spirit, Les Paul had just electrified the guitar, taking this heretofore background instrument and creating the ultimate weapon of mass construction for an uppity black dude from St. Louis, a one Mr. Chuck Berry, to unleash on an unsuspecting pedestrian society.
God help us all! Rock 'n' roll was born, and we have never looked back.
Like Les and Chuck, the world of wildlife conservation and sporting ethics had their own founding fathers in the great Fred Bear and Howard Hill, the pre-eminent archers and bowhunters of the day.
My dad was turned on by the mystical flight of the arrow. The Nugent family would be a part of the first wave of big game hunters with the stick and string, focusing on quality family time in the great outdoors, pursuing the exploding populations of majestic and ever-fascinating whitetail deer in our home state of Michigan.
Talk about never looking back. Guitars and bows and arrows! What a vision, what a dream, what a life.
From those first crude acoustic guitars that wouldn't tune up, and the earliest of hand-made longbows that gave me fits, my musical bowhunting life has remained on course and upgrading without detours or confusion for one hell of a run so far.
If ever there were a luckier young American, I know not who it may be. Moving along quite well for 59, I was still able to dance up a storm on stage for nearly 70 full-out rock-outs this summer, and my ridgerunning bowhunting season surely was the best of my life so far.
The music has more snarl and fire than ever, and I am sharing more venison with more Americans this season than I could have ever dreamed of harvesting back in the roaring '50s. That's 1950s, my friends. Prehistoric!
I owe it all to one simple guiding light: discipline.
With the strong arm of my dad ever looming, I was simply forced to make responsible, intelligent decisions during my formative years.
Once I left home after high school, I was extremely fortunate not to make too foolish of mistakes too often, so as not to end up in jail or dead.
Fortified with a militant disdain for drugs, alcohol, tobacco and all deadly, foolish behavior, I was better able to follow this clear, guiding light to a fuller, higher quality of life.
So on my 59th birthday, I say happy birthday to me, and say a prayer for my mom and dad, and all moms and dads who provide such loving discipline for their children.
For it is with this intelligent guidance that tomorrow's leaders and happy American Dreamers will provide a productive and positive atmosphere for a better America.
Happy birthday, Americans of 1948. Godspeed and carry on!
Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host. Communicate with Ted directly at tednugent.com.
