Article
published in The Old Schoolhouse:
The Magazine for Homeschool Families
Publishers Paul and Gena Suarez
Summer 2004 Edition
Confessions of a Former Retarded Gopher Skinner
by Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler
I was born in 1948, just in time to be bitten by the “Crockett bug”, inspired by Fess Parker’s 1955 portrayal of Davy Crockett, the “king of the wild frontier.” Until I was twelve years old, I couldn’t write, read, or spell very well. In fact, I flunked the first grade, and my teachers were saying I was retarded. They didn’t mind using that term in those days. That was before they had the labels like LD, ADD, ADHD, or any other D for that matter. The only D’s I was familiar with were the ones on my report card.
Davy Crockett once said, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” Once I discovered “Davy Crockett,” I knew that I would be all right, and I tried to be just like the Crockett movie character. Once I finally learned to read, I began devouring anything I could find: children’s books on mountain men, cowboys, Indians, soldiers, pioneers, and sod busters. I learned about the Old West portrayed in Little House on the Prairie. Of course, being born in the huge city of Los Angeles, I didn’t have the opportunity to do the things pioneers did, so I would just pretend and role play.
My mother didn’t know quite what to do with a kooky kid like me. By the time I was twelve, I figured that all the beavers had already been trapped in our “neck of the woods,” so I asked my neighbors in Santa Monica, California, if I could set gopher traps in their yards instead. When I caught a gopher, I’d be as proud as if I’d trapped a prize beaver. I’d run home and tell my mother in my native Spanish, “¡Mira mamá! ¡Mira lo que cogí en la trampa!” Rough translation…“Look, Mom! Look what I caught in the trap!” My long-suffering mother would wonder about her son, waving dead gophers at her. I’d skin them and proudly mount the gopher pelts all over my bedroom walls like the mountain men did with their prize wild game pelts and stitch them into pouches.
I got a tomahawk and threw it at the magnolia tree in front of our house. I did that so many years I just about killed that poor tree. That may sound like just kid’s play, but I was doing some serious role-playing of my frontier heroes.
My Uncle Jack, my step dad’s uncle, was a crusty old pioneer. He was a very special man to me and taught me many wonderful things about pioneer living, such as shooting and skinning animals, including rattlesnakes. He was a World War I veteran, and he had a cabin in the mountains in Lockwood Valley, California, near Mount Pinos. On Friday night or Saturday morning, my mother allowed her 11-year-old to take his .22 rifle on the Greyhound bus 100 miles to the turnoff for Lockwood Valley and hitchhike to Uncle Jack’s cabin. That would be dangerous today. On Sunday afternoon I’d take the last bus back home with the rabbit pelts I had trapped, having graduated from gopher pelts.
I would eat the
rabbits I had shot while I was at the cabin. If I didn’t get a rabbit, I
wouldn’t eat, except for the gingersnaps my uncle would share with me out
of his own pantry.
My first dad died when I was seven, and my step dad divorced my mother by the
time I was twelve. So, I was kind of lonely and turned to the Lord for companionship.
With the interest He gave me in the outdoors, I was able to satisfy my loneliness
and spend time outdoors with Him in His creation.
Nowadays, wherever I travel in ministry, parents often share with me — at times in desperation — that they have a son that doesn’t fit everybody else’s idea of “normal.” They say that their son is the kind of boy that likes to be outdoors all the time, and, like I was, is not very good with schoolwork and that they don’t know what to do with him. The boys feel like misfits or like they’ve done something wrong. They don’t have proper reading skills or good study habits. I didn’t learn to read until I was about twelve or thirteen, and then I still struggled with academics. However, I finally recognized that the Lord gave me a fascination with history and a gift to be able to share that interest. I had no idea that the Lord was preparing me for ministry while I was enjoying doing all those “out-of-the-ordinary” things I did know how to do. That’s how I am able to encourage parents that God has a plan and purpose for their sons as well, with unique gifts and callings that might not fit into the traditional classroom setting. They can learn other skills God can use for His glory and for ministry to others in the future. That’s what the Lord did for me.
The pioneers depended on God for the rain and for all the provision that came from the ground and the hard work they did, and I had the opportunity to learn to be like them. These days when people are hungry, they go to a store or a restaurant to get something pre-packaged or served fancy. Years ago before there were any supermarkets on the prairie, the pioneers would go out and shoot whatever they wanted to eat that night and prepare it themselves. They could split their own wood, build their own shelters, live in the woods. It dawned on me that there’s a whole generation of adults that have grown up completely deprived of the knowledge of what it would take to live independently, trusting God for His provision in hunting and growing their food. I believe it’s very important to have some exposure to these skills, because it can give you the sense that God can provide from His creation, and that you don’t have to depend on that paycheck. These are important lessons, because we should never get to a place in our lives that we trust only in our own strength, in our own paycheck, in our own wealth.
It’s been more than 50 years in the making since I was bit by the “Crockett bug,” but the Lord finally encouraged me to offer this pioneer experience at our “Little Bear Adventure Camps” to homeschool families. It’s for every member of the family: dads, moms, sons, and daughters, and even grandparents. Horn Creek Conference Grounds near Westcliffe, Colorado, offered me the opportunity to teach fathers and sons wilderness survival skills, like hunting and skinning wild game, fishing, and building traps and shelters. Besides the survival skills for the fathers and sons, there’s a special women’s ministry team, led by Cindy Cone, a very gifted women’s speaker, meeting the needs of the women and girls during breakaway sessions learning family skills. Along with the frontier skills, we offer inspiring, character-building history portrayals and re-enactments from historic events. We’ve even had a special guest, Fred Harlow, erect an entire World War II encampment of the US Army Tenth Mountain Division for a hands-on demonstration time. We meet together for praise and worship with gifted music minister, John G. Elliott, and devotion time with me. I’m not exaggerating when I say that there is something exciting for all pioneers-at-heart of all ages. For those who want learn more about our camps, you can go to www.mantleministries.com, and then click on the “mountains” marked “Little Bear Outdoor Adventure Camp.”
For those who can’t wait to come to camp, we’ve also produced a DVD video series called Frontier Skills with Little Bear, and we start with every outdoorsman’s dream — passing on the pioneer legacy of the great hunt — Gutting, Skinning, and Boning Wild Game. We teach you how to gut, skin, and bone wild game, taking it from field to freezer. This includes demonstrations of field dressing. For many a city-slicker, this is a forgotten skill, one that used to be passed down from father to son as essential. In preparation for our adventure camp, or for a day’s outing, we have a DVD on Outfitting Your Wilderness Survival Pack for surviving a wilderness hike should the unexpected ever occur. For a touch of history, there’s one on a fun skill of the Old Wild West: Trick Roping. We have plans to make other videos on tomahawk and knife throwing, building your own log furniture, and even one on gun safety. All these videos can be found on our website.
Recreating the “wild frontier” or pioneer days — even for just a week of camp — or learning the skills from our nation’s colorful past, helps us to appreciate how God has provided our every need and how wonderfully He has blessed this nation. As the generations of our country have come and gone throughout the ages, we can see how God’s hand has provided for us at all times. The same God of the pioneers is the same God we serve today, and He still has a providential plan even for us “retarded gopher skinners.”
Richard “Little
Bear” Wheeler, founder of Mantle Ministries, integrates theatrical training,
pastoral credentials, and Christian conviction to communicate to audiences of
all ages our Christ-centered, providential history. Little Bear's portrayals and
portraits of the heroes
of our faith and freedom provide inspiration, along with character-building role
models.