A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from a Caribou optometrist who said the cold weather had given him a perfect opportunity to sit back, look out the window, and reminisce about a life spent outdoors.

Dr. Ogden Small told me that he had put pen to paper and jotted some thoughts, and would like to share them … if I’d like to see them.

The answer, of course, was an automatic “Yes.”

Small is 73 years old and has spent plenty of time in the woods and on the waters of our state. I figured his words would be worth reading, and after receiving his letter a few days later, that turned out to be the case.

Here are a few excerpts from that letter.

“What has happened to the heritage of hunting and fishing that I have known during my lifetime greatly concerns me. Following are some of my thoughts,” Small wrote.

“I was one of the hunters who supported the bear referendum, and there were more of us than you may realize. I did so because I could not defend the way the black bear is harvested in Maine, to my nonhunting friends, as fair chase. The snaring and trapping of the black bear needs to be abolished. If we do not change our ways, we play right into the hands of the anti-hunting public,” he wrote.

“We don’t seem to have many hunters out there any more. Most people hunt from their vehicles. Moose are hunted from vehicles, partridge are hunted from vehicles, and I recently read in the [NEWS] that game wardens reported that during the 2004 deer hunting season 60 percent of the hunters they checked were hunting from their vehicles.

“The coyote is not the major problem to our whitetail deer herd, and all the snaring and coyote-killing derbies are not going to eliminate this intelligent animal. These practices also play into the hands of the anti-hunters. Man is the ultimate predator and he has no right to eliminate another species so he can do the killing.

“The gradual decline in our deer herd in northern Maine during the past 20 years or so is due largely to the loss of deer wintering habitat, especially the small deer yards that would carry 10 or 20 deer over the winter months. Due to aggressive harvesting practices they are all gone. We have more deer around the fields than in the deep woods.

“Six of my friends and I hunt from a camp west of Ashland. The oldest is 87, and I am the youngest. I have had the privilege to hunt out of that camp since 1965. Now I would be hard-pressed to even see a deer or two in six days. I still love to get out in the woods and hunt, although I do not kill any more, and have just as much enjoyment. I am not against shooting game animals to eat. I have just shot enough in my time.

Small said years ago he could take a fellow angler to a dozen spots within a two-hour drive of his summer cottage to catch a feed of native brook trout. Not any more.

“If we are going to save what we have left of our wild brook trout and landlocked salmon fishery, we must practice catch and release. A fishing license can no longer be a meal ticket,” he wrote.

“Another problem I have is the lack of solitude in the woods and on the waters anymore, due to the operation of snowsleds in the winter and ATVs and personal watercraft in the summer. Man just must have his noise and his speed.

“Well, enough of doom and gloom,” he wrote. “Maybe what I have experienced in my lifetime doesn’t matter to the present generation.”

Then Small delivered the sentence that really resonated … and made me realize how much things had changed, and how much we’ve already lost.

“What [the present generation] haven’t had the opportunity to experience, they won’t miss,” Small wrote. “I sure miss it.”

Thanks for taking the time to write down your thoughts, Dr. Small. And thanks for sharing them.

Dippers share a common bond

Every year Tess Ftorek attends the Polar Bear Dip she helped found, she invariably says the same thing to someone.

“It can’t be this cold next year,” she’ll tell them.

On Friday, as 161 dippers plunged into Passamaquoddy Bay to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House, Ftorek again admitted that she may have underestimated.

“This is the coldest one yet,” she said, as the mercury hovered at about 1 degree … and the wind whipped … and the 34-degree water placidly lapped up against the ice … I mean, the shore … emitting a periodic puff of sea smoke that mocked us all.

We Mainers ought to know better. It can get colder. It will get colder. And just because they had to bring in bulldozers to clear the ice from the Pleasant Point shoreline this year, that doesn’t mean they won’t have to bring in a couple … or more … the next time we decide to make like penguins and waddle into the frigid froth.

A year ago, I participated in the annual fund-raiser of the Washington County Community College Student Senate under duress. This year, I did so of my own free will.

That may say something about my apparently diminishing mental capacities. Or, more likely, it may mean something that you surely won’t believe.

It’s not that bad.

There. I said it. Each of us dippers share the bond of a common experience … and despite what we may try to tell you, it’s not that bad.

Though we may differ in our opinions on the conduct of our fellow polar bears (I personally believe that wetsuits are cheating and that those who don’t totally immerse themselves are only half-dipped), amazingly few dippers actually say to other dippers: “I’ll never, ever, ever do this again!”

The reason for that isn’t that we’re amazingly tough (though we’ll tell you that’s the case).

The fact of the matter is, many Americans got just as big a shock watching the halftime show of the last Super Bowl as we dippers got on Friday.

It hurt … for a second.

It caught our attention … for a second.

And then it was over.

Then we were left to huddle around bonfires, warm back up, and enjoy the feeling that comes when you do something moderately foolish for a great cause.

The Ronald McDonald House gained more than $25,000 due to that foolishness.

Not a bad outcome for a couple chilly minutes of work, I figure.

Coming up on ‘Going Outdoors’

On Monday’s 6 p.m. newscast on ABC-7, you’ll have the chance to find out a bit more about the WCCC Student Senate’s Polar Bear Dip.

As part of the NEWS’ ongoing cooperative effort with ABC-7, our “Going Outdoors” segment will feature the dip … and the dippers.

Among the day’s media dippers were ABC-7 anchor Liz Talbot and NEWS staffers Jeff Strout, Diana Graettinger, and Aimee Dolloff.

As long as cameraman Dave Simpson’s gear didn’t completely freeze up, we should have some good video of the festive event.

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