Triathlon

BirchOrr

New member
Well men, I'm gearing up for a big triathlon next Saturday. Special invite only, 24 people total. Names are drawn and put into 2 man teams. Events are bow and arrow (cross-bows are legal), off-hand BP shooting followed by a euchre tournament.

Each team shoots 3 arrows/bolts per round, 12 times. For BP, 1 practice shot per person, and 2 shots per person for the points. Finally 12 games of euchre to decide the winner. $20.00 entrance fee and winner takes all.

Only reason I even mention this is it's great fun here in MI in the dead of winter and gives us old guys something fun to do! With 24 guys it takes all day from 7AM till well into the night to complete. More than 24 guys takes too long. Well worth doing and big fun!

Food is provided, (we all bring an assigned dish or ingredient). Mostly fish, and wild game. Breakfast is made by each contestant. Two turkey deep fryers are full of boiling water. Each person puts 2 or 3 raw eggs, pre-cooked bacon, cheese, etc in a Zip-Lock FREEZER bag and write their name on it with a sharpie. Boil for 20 minutes and your own perfect omelet is done. We fish them out of the pot with an ice fishing, ice skimmer. What easier way to feed 24 guys quickly with no dishes to do!

Great for any sportsman club or even doing one yourself as it's a great way to meet new people and compare notes. You can tweak the events anyway you wish however, a card game in the works gives those less skilled a chance to stay in the competition.

Think about doing one and wish me luck! :D

Birch
 
Birch,
Iffen you are an oldetimer from Eaton Rapids, then you had to know Art Holley and Pa Keeler.
And even maybe me when I lived there and belonged to the 3 Fires. and did all that Buckskinning thing.
 
Thanks guys!

Old Dragoon - Indeed I do know those guys! I'm 53. My Dad is Carl Orr.

Being involved with 3 Fires, I'm sure you know "Trader Bill" Hammond. I'm in his shop once a week at least. He worked for my Dad at the schools. Known him since I was a kid. I'm so lucky to have Bill's shop so close. Some of the guys here have trouble getting the right stuff or have to order it. Bill has absolutely everything!

Nice to run into a fellow "Eaton Rapidite" here!

All the best to you sir!
 
Birch.. I about fell outta my chair when I saw the word "euchre". I haven't heard or seen that word since I left Michigan oh so many years ago. When I worked at Ford there was a running game all day in the cafeteria with guys constantly changing seats as they went on and off break.

Sounds like a real fun gig. Hope you have a ball.

jlb
 
jlb43

Wow... didn't realize euchre was mainly a "great white north" game. :D

Interesting you worked at the Ford plant. When I got out of high school, I went to work at the Oldsmobile plant in Lansing. Indeed, there was a euchre game there (3 shifts) that never stopped until the weekend. :cool:
 
I worked at the Ford plant in Wixom. I was on the line the day Kennedy was assassinated. That was many moons ago.
 
Birch,
Not sure I remember Bill Hammond,and am trying to remember the names or monikers of some of the others in 3 Fires. There was a Native American we called Blanket A$$, and he called himself that as well, made puppy stew once or twice too. A guy named Pete called Paw Haskin's , He wore a tanned, fur on Bull Elk Scrotum as a hat some times, Ken Stuck, And Homer Dangler from Adrian that had a gun shop. Another Guy I remember was a big dude called 3 or III. Racking my brain to remember others.

Art Holly was my Mentor, teaching me how to build ML rifles and such. Pa Keeler helped me a lot too. I only lived in ER, about 6 month's as I left to be Gunsmith at Fort Fire Lands in Northern Ohio. That did not turn out well, but I sure gained some needed experience, Guns, and in life. That was 1970 or 1971.

Once Before I moved to ER, I drove from Muncie Indiana to a 3 Fires shoot near Flint. Shot in every match and drove home to keep my privileges.

Have a great time and we used to play Euchre at lunch at Westinghouse in Muncie, Indiana.

Shinin' times!
 
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No, not really similar. Euchre uses a partial deck - 9's and higher, and the highest trump card is the jack (right bower), followed by the other same color jack (left bower), then the ace and so on down. Same size hand: 5 cards.
 
My Lord... another game that you can never figure out unless you were born there. :rolleyes:

At least it's played in English and not in Cajun French?

Memories of working on an oil rig as a diver back in the late 70's: The game than never ended.


Sounds like a great time with the guys. Well done!


Willie

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^^^

You guys are killin me! LOL! :D

Euchre: origin unknown, First Known Use: 1841

Dragoon - "71" would have been a bit before Bill's time. Bill bought everything from Roy "Pa" Keelers shop from Roy's widow. He took over where Pa left off. You could possibly remember a guy named Paul Letts. He was my grade school Principal and when I went into 6th grade, (1971) he went back to teaching and was my teacher. When he was Principal, he assembled the entire school in the gym, had a piece of 3/4 plywwod set up, loaded a civil war era musket with BP and paper towel as a bullet and fired it blowing a hole through the plywood demonstrating to all of us how deadly firearms can be. We had no kids taking guns to school back then! My first time seeing a BP gun in action! :D In his 6th grade class we could take a jack-knife to school and we kept them in a shoe-box in a drawer in his desk. If/when we got our work done, we could go in the back room and whittle. I still have the 3-blade Shrade/Walden knife I bought with my paper-route money I got in his 6th grade class. I went on many a trip with him in the boundry waters, (northern Minnesota/Canada) and he taught me how to survive in the wilderness with little to nothing. He pinned on my Eagle Scout bage. Talk about a mentor, aside from my own dad, no-one prepared me for life better than Paul Letts. I carried this tradition on with my own kids (just like I was mentored), and my daughter can out-fish, out-trap out-shoot and out-hunt her husband and does it on a regular basis. Ticks him off somethin' terrible! LOL!!! :D

Gawd can ya imagine if a couple dozen of us here got together for a day of BP pistol/long gun shootin, fish & wild game meals and a good card game? Woooo-Hooo bring it on boys! :D

Birch
 
^^ be worth a drive from Wisconsin for Willie.

Teach ya'll how to play bo-ray, bring your dollar bills, boys, 'cause we make up the rules as we go...


Your mentor sounds like the sort of man that we have all too few of these days. Mine was my sea-scout skipper.... bless him. Well done and well written.


Willie

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You fella's from E.R.,Mich. area heard of a fella by the last name of Sutter?
Can't remember his first name. :rolleyes:

Have met him a few times years ago through a friend of mine. He's a BP bench shooter. Have seen some custom bench guns as well as a few handheld BP rifle's he has custom made that were exquisite.

All his customs have his initials in the stock but again I can't think of his first name. But as I recall, the "S" in his last name wraps around the first initial.

FWIW, Euchre is a big game around Ohio as well. ;)
 
Shortwave,
You near Fort Hill? EDIT: Never mind, I saw Southeast, I read South west...DUH!

I was with the Michigan bunch at a Rendezvous near Fort Hill. We brought the goat on top of the car for a blanket prize. Was a great weekend that!

You guys are bringing back so many memories.
 
Willie/shortwave

Seriously Willie, thanks so much for the kind words sir! Very nice of you to say. Ya gotta admit though "Washington Hold-em" might be a better name for a card game involving money where the rules are made as you go along. :D

Shortwave, I don't know of Sutter. I'm kinda suprised. I'll ask Bill Hammond about him and keep ya posted.

All of ya here would be welcome at my campfire anytime. ;)

Birch
 
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