My dad taught us to do things the old fashion way. He was from Oklahoma and grew up in the depression. He taught us how to garden, and took us deer hunting, squirrel hunting, wild boar hunting, fishing and finally how to find wild berries and mushrooms in the forests.
I grew up in Anderson, California. One day, when I was about nine, my dad took my brother and me out looking for honeycomb mushrooms. We had gone to this same place for about five years; it was across the river from Anderson River Park. Anyway, we were walking through the forest looking for mushrooms and I watched a huge black thing run from one tree to another about twenty yards from us. It hid behind a tree and peeked around to look at us. I was terrified. Remember, I was only about nine and I didn't know what a Bigfoot was. I had never heard of such a thing, so I thought it was a big bear. I yelled at my dad, something like "Dad, Dad, I see a big bear running from tree to tree peeking at us!" We had been bear hunting with him before and my dad seemed to not be afraid of anything. I didn't want my dad to think I was scared so I tried to not be; but, it was just too scary and the biggest bear I have ever seen so I couldn't help it, I just burt out, "Dad, Dad, there is a really big bear following us!" I was scarring my little brother who is two years younger than me. He started crying and screaming and we ended up going home early. My dad was angry with me.
About a year later, our family was watching a TV show about Bigfoot. This was the first time I ever heard anything about a Bigfoot. They ran a video of what is supposedly the only real footage of a Bigfoot ever caught on tape. I jumped up and pointed to the Bigfoot and told everyone in my family who were sitting there watching TV with me that, that is what I saw when we were hunting mushrooms in the park. Dad and Mom, my sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles all got shocked looks on their faces.
