Winners in moose lottery hope to build on tales of success

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More than 20 years ago, those of us who’d learned to grudgingly appreciate the grueling track workouts concocted by our Brewer High School coach found a new teammate in our midst.

His name was Bart.

Bart wasn’t always Bart, really. Originally, he was Larry. Then he moved to Brewer from Presque Isle, joined the track team, and began running distance races.

Every time he circled the track – which, you may know, distance runners do far too frequently – his new teammates looked at each other and asked the same question. “Who’s that?”

After a few laps of his first race, a teammate answered the question for all time. “He looks like a Bart,” that teammate said. “He’s Bart.”

This, you ought to remember, took place long before overactive Bart Simpson appeared on TV and made the name famous. At the time, none of us knew a Bart. None of us knew what a Bart looked like. But to most of us, the kid formerly known as Larry became Bart that day, and has remained nothing but Bart ever since.

Over the past 25 years, my old high school track friend has remained in periodic contact. Every few years, we touch base. Since we got e-mail capability here at the NEWS a few years back, the dispatches from Bart – who lives in Germany, where he serves in the U.S. Army – have become more frequent.

In the wake of my latest moose lottery failure, Bart e-mailed again last week. I share some of his remarks here.

“I had a good chuckle from your story on the moose permit draw,” Bart wrote. “Having been away from Maine for 22 years, I took a chance and entered the lottery this year (first time) and can you believe it, I did get selected.

“Yes, I am still a Maine resident, and not one of those out-of-staters. I will be hunting in Zone 3, and have an antlerless permit. From the stats I can find on-line, this seems to be a very good area.

“I now have a couple of reasons to fly home from Germany,” Bart continued. “My dad will be getting married in July, but [I will also] do some brook fishing and some white-water rafting. I guess I will now have to also do some scouting.

“I have to relate this to those popular credit card commercials,” he wrote.

“Plane ticket: $800.

“Lodging: $550.

“Misc. hunting expenses: $800.

“The chance to spend a week in the northern Maine woods and possibly bag a moose: PRICELESS.

“I will not venture a guess on the cost of shipping meat back to Germany,” he finished.

“Take care,

“Larry `Bart’ Levasseur.”

Thanks for the e-mail, Bart. And I’m glad you still remember your “real” name.

Bart Levasseur wasn’t the only prospective moose hunter with a story to tell.

Doug McVay of Franklin woke up on June 17 – the day after the drawing – intent on enjoying his birthday. It started off better than he’d hoped.

“My son [Chris] called at about six that morning [and told me I’d been drawn],” McVay said.

Doug McVay, who also participated in the moose hunt about four years ago, found out that there was more good news.

His son, 21-year-old Benjamin, also earned a moose permit.

Doug McVay – who listed Benjamin as his subpermittee – said that when listing his preferred hunting zones on the permit applications, he started in Franklin and started working his way farther afield.

And thanks to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game computer, the McVays won’t be traveling too far to hunt.

Benjamin was drawn for Zone 28, which includes Franklin. He’ll hunt in October. Doug will take part in the September hunt in Zone 19, just a half-hour away.

Many of us think of moose hunting and focus on the western and northern sections of Maine. Coastal Franklin doesn’t immediately come to mind.

But there are plenty of moose around. And it didn’t take Doug McVay long to receive a favorable scouting report on his home district.

“My brother was over [on my birthday], and we were talking about the moose hunt,” Doug McVay said. “He lives about four miles from me, in Waltham, and when he got home he called and said two moose crossed the road in front of him about a mile from my house.”

One final moose-hunting note: While I was enjoying the camaraderie of the lottery drawing in Presque Isle two weeks ago, my co-worker, photographer Linda O’Kresik, sidled up to me and whispered in my ear.

“Did you hear that name? I think he said Daryl Oxic of Deedam,” she said. “That sounds a lot like Daryl O’Kresik of Dedham.”

And Daryl O’Kresik of Dedham? He is our photographer’s husband … and she was his potential subpermittee.

The shriek you may have heard at about 6:45 p.m. on June 16 came from Linda O’Kresik, after she found out that she and her husband are, in fact, going moose hunting.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.