When we came to Corning, both Ruth and I had expected that New York state was wall-to-wall skyscrapers, and were surprised to see the land mostly covered by forests.

The forests surrounding Corning are well populated with Virginia white-tailed deer, and every November my friends and I have gone hunting. Now it's become an annual tradition for my sons Don and Bob to hunt with me for several days near Thanksgiving.

Many years ago on a deer hunt I had shot my buck in the afternoon and dragged it to my car. I decided to go back into the woods to dry driving a deer to one of the other hunters. I came to a logging road with which I thought I was familiar and followed it; but just as dusk came the road ended deep in the woods and I realized I was lost.

I tried yelling, but received no answers. Soon the night was jet black. There was no moon, and I couldn't see a foot in front of me. I had a compass, but no flashlight to read it by. I tried to walk in one direction hoping to find a road, but every few steps, I ran into a tree and got turned around or fell down a hill, and lost all sense of direction. Then I saw an airplane beacon sweeping the sky. I tried for a while to stumble toward its source, but gave that up when I got to an opening clearing and saw at least three beacons in different directions!

Finally, after about four hours of wandering, by pure luck I came to a secondary road, flagged down a car, and got a ride for a few miles to the village of Addison. The driver dropped me at a tavern, the only place in town with signs of life at ten P.M. There I found about a dozen men at the bar, all claiming that they had just returned from searching for me, and that I owed them drinks! This was probably true, because my companions had driven to town to phone for help.

Then I phoned home. Ruth bravely volunteered to come and get me, although she had never driven at night and wasn't sure she could find the way. Bob, who was only five, assured that he knew how to get to Addison, because we had driven through the town on the way fishing and picnicking. Sure enough, the two of them got to the tavern and rescued me!