OPINION —
RECENTLY MY younger brother Bill Feigert fulfilled a lifelong dream by traveling to Hawaii with five family members and running his first full marathon in an excellent time. That night he died of a heart attack at age 59. He was a loved one and very best friend to me and several others, a good friend to hundreds, and an enemy to no one. He had simple tastes, an easygoing manner, and the ability to make anyone laugh anywhere, anytime. He took pleasure in his family and the outdoors. He was an outdoorsman every day of his life.
From the days when he and his buddy Davey Shaffer were rascally 7-year-olds trailing older brothers Skip and me to the neighborhood pond, carrying all our bait and gear because that was the price to tag along, until a month ago, when he took three deer in one season, Billy devoted much of his time to hunting and fishing. Uncle Bud introduced him to crappie fishing at Pymatuning and took him out for trout at Uncle Jack’s Cottage in Venango County. On the stream he was a wanderer upstream and down, going it alone and avoiding the crowds. That was Billy, a solitary guy sometimes, especially in the outdoors, but the life of the party when it suited him. “I love beer,” he once said famously to a group of us at camp, including his wife Sandy. “I really love beer. I could marry beer — sorry Honey — because beer is my friend.”
Powser brought him into the family small game hunting tradition when he was 12, and he participated every fall Saturday with us for 20 years, never the best marksman but always the most likely to get off multiple shots. “The more times you shoot,” he told us repeatedly, “the better your chance of hitting the game!”
In our twenties, he and I took up deer hunting, and Skip, Dale, and Powser followed our lead. They always traveled to deer camp on Sunday, though, the day before the opener, while Billy and I left the Friday after Thanksgiving and hunkered down for the weekend at Uncle Jack’s, hunting small game, scouting for deer, and reading outdoor magazine after outdoor magazine, studying the best practices of whitetail pursuit and then trying them out in the forest.
In 1986 we founded F-Troop Camp in Warren County, and Billy became a charter member. His first deer season opening day there, he wandered up the mountain before daybreak and discovered F-Rock on the edge of steep ridge and bench. He killed a six-point there that first morning and another buck from the same rock on the following year’s opener. Billy or his son Billy, Junior (the F-Man), or somebody has hunted from that boulder every first day for a quarter of a century. Donna Rai and I and Brad and Todd and maybe Gary and Brett plan to travel up to camp next week and climb up to F-Rock to linger and remember.
When the F-Man was only the F-Kid, he and his Dad visited camp on frequent weekends with one of F-Kid’s buddies, such as Sluggo, the weakest hitting wiffle-ball player in camp history, Castaway, the wildest flinger of fishing line in Pennsylvania, or PigPen, who never touched a bar of soap that we ever witnessed and who was a pyromaniac at the campfire.
A few years later, Sandy’s daughter Amy made several trips and earned the camp name The Hillside Screamer for her constant loud chatter and boisterous laughter while telling tales at the fire. For the past several years, my brother’s primary companion to local ponds, rivers and lakes for bass outings has been Marty, Sandy’s son, who whispered “I lost my fishing buddy” at the services last week, and shook his head in wonder, knowing how valuable a true fishing friend can be.
We will all miss him, and the outdoors will miss him, too. He was an enthusiast in the woods and on the waterways. But he was more than that. His smile, his sense of humor, his laid-back demeanor put all those around him at ease. Any room he walked into, he lit up with his presence. He could laugh at you and laugh at himself and laugh at anything. He brought a hint of brightness into every life he touched. And now all of us who knew and loved him are less rich and our lives are drearier than they were a few short days ago.
The best and only thing you could say about Billy is: everybody loved him. Everybody loved him. I knew him for 59 years, and, if we ever had an argument, I don’t remember it. Billy had no time for something as stupid as arguments. He knew life was too short.
Last Tuesday after the funeral, several of us stopped down at the Jai Alai to toast my brother and listen to close friend Stephen McCarthy tell story after hilarious story about his life and times with Billy. That’s pretty much what we’re left with now: the memories.
Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Web site at www.donfeigert.com.
Sports
Related Photos
-
Bill Feigert shows a smallmouth bass he caught and released while canoeing the Shenango River. Don Feigert/Herald
THE EVENING CAMPFIRE: Bill Feigert - a life in the outdoors
- Sports
-
-
5 area teams qualify for D-10 baseball playoffs
Five area baseball teams have qualified for the District 10 playoffs — Grove City, Kennedy Catholic, Sharpsville, West Middlesex and Wilmington.
In the Class A semifinals, Kennedy Catholic faces Cochranton at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Northwestern High School. Rocky Grove faces Eisenhower in the other semifinal game. -
Hickory, WM boys to collide at D-10 AA Track & Field Championships
For the 2nd time this week, a District 10 track & field team title could be decided by a pair of Mercer County contingents.
Just as Hickory and Grove City girls contested the Class AAA crown Wednesday night, so, too, are the Hickory and West Middlesex boys anticipating vying for Saturday’s AA title. -
Roundup: Reynolds baseball tops GC; Sharpsville, Wilmington softball teams win
ä Reynolds 4, Grove City 1 — At Transfer, Neal Engstrom fired a complete-game 3-hitter with 8 strikeouts and 3 walks in lifting the Raiders (9-8) past the Eagles (14-6).
Ryan Grace was tagged with the loss for Grove City. He struck out 6 batters, issued no walks and gave up 7 hits in going the distance. -
GC girls 3-peat at District 10 Class AAA Track & Field Championships
HARBORCREEK— Some athletes seeded 1st in four events would feel pressure. For Grove City High senior Daniel Jaskowak, it’s an opportunity for name recognition.
“I kind’ve like it. It’s cool, because people know who you are,” related Jaskowak, who won 3 events during Wednesday’s District 10 Class AAA Track & Field Championships. -
Hickory, GC girls collide at D-10 Class AAA Track & Field Championships
If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Cliché though that is, it will be borne out today at the annual District 10 Class AAA Track & Field Championships.
Hickory High girls — the defending PIAA Class AA titlists — will test the best from the biggest. And the Lady Hornets hope to give as good as they get from the 6-county competition. -
Local tune up for districts at Mercer County Invite
There’s a difference between a warm-up and a warning.
If Saturday’s annual track & field invitational is any indication, Mercer County’s contingent issued a warning for the remainder of District 10: This could be a big year in area annals. -
Roundup: Grace, GC beat Sharon, 4-0, in 5 innings
With an impending storm blowing in above Johnny Pepe Field time was limited, so Ryan Grace greedily gobbled up putouts.
Grove City High’s Grace gave up only 3 base hits, and the visiting Eagles eased to an abbreviated 4-0, 5-inning win over Sharon Friday afternoon. -
HIGH SCHOOL SPRING SPORTS ROUNDUP: County track meet set Saturday at Hickory
The annual Mercer County Track & Field Invitational will be held at Hickory High’s Hornet Stadium Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m.
Competing are all Mercer County teams, Class AAA and AA, as well as Slippery Rock. The meet serves as a warm-up to the District 10 championships set next week at Harbor Creek High. -
Roundup: Sharon baseball squad edges Sharpsville, 5-4
It was a tense Tuesday in Tiger-town.
Twenty-four hours removed from a 1-run Region 2-AA loss at New Wilmington, Sharon High’s baseball team could not afford another setback, otherwise its postseason aspirations were alleviated.
Conversely, region pacesetting Sharpsville could have secured the crown with a win, and the Blue Devils dashed to an early 3-0 lead. -
Roundup: WM sweeps Oil Country Track & Field Invite
West Middlesex swept the team titles on Saturday at the Oil Country Invitational at Oil City High School on Saturday.
Coach Bob Morris’ Ms. Reds accumulated 113 points to grab the crown, followed by Lakeview (107.5), Franklin (84), Meadville (74) and Corry (69.5). - More Sports Headlines
-
5 area teams qualify for D-10 baseball playoffs
