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G. Sam Piatt

PDT Outdoors Writer

I’ll never have any money because I’m going to have to pay out all I’ve got to hire someone to keep a watch on me in order to determine where I have placed things.

Things simply disappear into thin air. Usually I wind up finding them right where I left them, but sometimes I never see them again. The latter has occurred twice in the past month with checks I have received.

Thursday I went fishing out on the river, returning before dark. I went to bed early and got up looking for my hearing aids. Had they somehow managed to fly out and into the river while moving full throttle.

I had worked some that evening here in my basement alcove on typing a story, and I often take them out and lay them on my desk because I can’t stand to hear my fingers clanking loudly on the keyboard.

I looked all around with a flashlight on my desk, under my desk, under the bed, tore all the bed covers off the bed.

I enlisted the aid of my wife and son in helping to look for the missing hearing aids.

Finally, after an hour of looking, I stuck my hand in the left-hand pocket of my pajamas, which I was still wearing, and there were my lost hearing aids.

NO NEWS

Then, this morning, I went out to the box at 5 a.m. to get the newspaper.

I brought it in and laid it on the kitchen table and then commenced to make a pot of coffee.

When the coffee was done, I poured a cup and looked for the paper. I had gone nowhere except the kitchen, dining room and my bedroom.

It’s now after noon and there’s no need to ask me what’s in the morning newspaper.

But it’s somewhere, and hopefully I’ll find it before tomorrow’s edition arrives.

OHIO DEER RESULTS

Deer hunters in Ohio killed 86,964 whitetails statewide during the week-long deer gun season that ran Nov. 26-Dc. 2.

That’s down 3.7 percent from last year’s harvest of 90,282.

Coshocton was the No. 1 county with a kill of 3,119; followed closely by Muskingum at 2,927.

In southeastern Ohio, the total for several counties, with last year’s kill in parentheses, showed:

Athens 1,983 (2,059)

Adams 1,554 (1,515)

Jackson 1,439 (1,515)

Lawrence 1,286 (1,574)

Scioto 1,138 (1,224)

Brown 1,094 (1,229)

Pike 973 (1,077)

Ohio has a second two-day gun-deer season set for Dec. 15-16 and a muzzleloader season set for Jan. 5-8.

Kentucky’s muzzleloader deer season came in yesterday and runs through Dec. 16. Antlered deer only may be taken Dec. 8-13 while either sex can be killed Dec. 14-16.

MEN OF VALOR

The commercials of Christmas time seem to be grating on the nerves a little earlier this year than in the past. Arrived “just in time for Christmas” or “they make wonderful Christmas gifts” are statements that seem to accompany every advertisement of goods for sale in these days leading up to Christmas Day, a day set aside to honor the birth of Jesus Christ, who offers the greatest gift of all – the gift of salvation and of eternal life – a gift free to all the peoples of the earth who will receive it.

Nothing wrong with exchanging gifts, of course. I plan on giving and receiving a few myself. But I hope not to get caught up so strongly in the commercial aspects of Christmas.

JUST IN TIME…

Even so, lots of people who have bought the World War II book, “Men of Valor,” from me since it came out Sept. 11, have called or emailed or stopped me to ask if there are more available that they might get one to give others.

Yes there are because I have received additional first edition books from the publisher this week.

I have three public signings set for the coming week.

I’ll be at the James Dickey Post 23 American Legion on Court Street in Portsmouth Wednesday Dec. 12 from before noon until into the afternoon. This is one of the days the Legion and its Auxiliary will be honoring area military veterans with gifts and a meal.

On Thursday, Dec. 13, I’ll be at the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center on Winchester Avenue in Ashland starting at about 6 p.m.

At 6:30 Matt Potter, curator of military collections there, will be presenting a program featuring memories of veterans serving in the military during Christmas. There is a story each from World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

He has researched the story from the first world war and the others come from his own interviews of military veterans.

The program is free and refreshments will be available, Potter said.

For more information, call him at (606) 547-2607.

Then, on Saturday, Feb. 15, from about 10 a.m. until well into the afternoon, I will be, along with several other authors, at the McConnell House in Wurtland for the McConnell House Showcase.

The 1845-era two-story white brick sets in a field off U.S. 23 just north of its junction with KY 67 (the Industrial Parkway).

One reason “Men of Valor” was written was to serve as a reminder of what our ancestors went through in those terrible three and one-half years of combat in the battle for freedom.

Geographically speaking, this area along the Ohio River provided as much or more in manpower and goods in winning World War II than any other area of similar size in the nation.

The 310-page book consists of World War II combat stories of more than 65 veterans from this area. I interviewed as many of them as possible and wrote their stories between early 2008 and mid-2011.

These men, all in their mid- to late 80s, were teenagers just leaving high school when they answered the call to go and fight against an enemy on the far side of two oceans.

Across the nation these men were dying daily and taking their stories with them. The ones I reached agreed to tell what this terrible war was like – in battles on land, on the seas, and in the air – so that future generations will know and remember.

Sad to say, I’ve found at least a dozen of them have died since I interviewed them.

The book is priced at $20 even.

If you can’t get by the signings, I can get books to you in the regular mail in a couple of days. To order, make out a check to me for $26, which includes the cost of handling and mailing, and send it, along with the return address you want the book mailed to, to me at 50 First Street, South Shore, KY 41175.

Also let me know if you want me to sign it and to whom.

G. Sam Piatt can be reached at (606) 932-3619 or Gsamwriter@aol.com.