“Your shoes are untied,” Mom said every April Fools’ Day. The day fell this year on Friday after Angelkeep Journals appeared as a Thursday column. Mom’s old, yet timeless joke always made me look. In her senior years the look was out of respect. Mom died before Angelkeep Journals began. How lovely it would be to hear Mom’s April Fools’ joke one more time.
Transitioning to hearing…
Before April, when spring sprung as unrealistic desire, a wren chirped outside the kitchen window so loudly it could be heard, and recorded, on the inside of a closed double-paned double-hung sash. It bent down to a squat and arose high over and over with every chirp burst. It was comical, loud, and the sweetest love call by any Angelkeep bird ever. That wren sure knew how to sink its teeth into rounding up a love mate for spring.
Transitioning to a “sinking teeth into” story…
Wilson Moore Bulger celebrated his 75th birthday on April 2. He was from Bluffton but the date for the three-quarter centenarian was 1888. Blufftonians of that era knew him better as “Kill Buck.” The story was told that he was the most successful deer hunter in Wells County. He frequently downed multiples in a single day. At the time of his 75th birthday, deer had become nearly extinct in the area with even a sighting becoming worthy front-page news. Deer visit Angelkeep almost daily, drawn by corn placed for their consumption. Angelkeep could never kill a buck regardless of enjoying venison.
Transitioning to gathering food…
“Kill Buck” actually shot a robin for lunch on his 75th birthday. To Angelkeep that borders on the appalling. He likely shot it while “the early bird was catching the worm.” Was it Kill Buck Bulger’s first sighting of a robin in spring? Granted, a hunter would have to be a crack shot to take down a robin and have any portion remaining of a size to fry for lunch. How much meat could actually be found on the drumstick of a robin? What’s for supper, Kentucky Fried Cardinal?
Transitioning to a birthday supper…
On April 2, 1888, Kill Buck Bulger landed himself a fine pike from Bluffton’s Wabash River. Angelkeep has no pike in Angelpond, but a good-sized bass could make an ample meal for a small birthday gathering. The Kill Buck pike became a shared birthday supper held in Bulger’s honor in the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. C. Arnold. Every relative living in Bluffton, and they were legion, received an invitation. Mart Bulger’s crew even arrived from Fort Wayne, perhaps via the railroad, for the affair. The local news story failed to provide a full menu for the elegant birthday dinner. It failed to give details of the many stories shared over the dining table, other than mentioning that “An enjoyable time was had which will long be pleasantly remembered.” Did they serve cake? Did it hold 75 candles? Would Kill Buck have enough wind left after hunting down a robin and reeling in a Wabash River pike to even blow out his candles? Did Kill Buck choke and die the next day on leftover robin red breast?
Transitioning to Kill Buck genealogy…
Mr. Bulger would live on for another decade and be buried beside his spouse in the Old Bluffton Cemetery. Wife Apphia died April 1870, making Kill Buck a widower of 18 years on his 75th birthday. What did Kill Buck kill for his 85th birthday lunch, a wren? A hummingbird? Had he ever heard of pizza? He might have put away his rifle and called in a delivery order. It’s hard to imagine a Bluffton pizza delivery showing up in horse and buggy.
Transitioning to Angelkeep birthday dining…
Although Angelkeep has both robins and fish to stalk for a birthday delight, a pizza delivery would always win the birthday day options. For an aging birthday boy, topping off a pizza with baked pecan pie a la mode would be just perfect. “Hello…yes…delivery…large…meat lovers please…wait…make that two, love those leftovers. What crust? Surprise us, after all it is a birthday supper. Oh thank you sir, free extra cheese would be like the icing on a cake.”
Transitioning to…well, you’ll never guess whose 74th birthday arrives on Palm Sunday 2022.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
