My colleague and friend Gus Broucaret celebrated his 90th birthday this year.

He also wrote a memoir of his life’s adventures and travails. Here is a link to the book if you’d like a copy:

And here is an excerpt,

from a time when it was all open land down by Serramonte shopping center and highway 280, San Mateo county

when you could go hunt rabbits there before sun up, and still get to work on time

then later enjoy a good cottontail and polenta dinner, after pruning a mile of hedges and mowing countless lawns

the chapter is titled – “Hunting”:

I went hunting when I was thirteen with my grandfather, who was the first person to teach me how to fish. This was my first time to shoot a gun. We were using Gigis 410 bolt action shotgun. It shot 3.5” 410 shells. My grandfather was very frugal and would not shoot unless he was sure to have a dead bird or rabbit. He would always put the gun up but not fire. He would say “Too far”. After a while he handed me the 410 and said for me to walk in front of him and take a shot if something jumped or flew. I had been taught how to handle the gun, its safety, its bolt action, and how to load it by my uncle Gigi. We were walking along the bottom of the dry creek bed when on the top bank a skunk came sauntering toward us and grandpa says shoot it. I didn’t shoot as I thought it was just a skunk moving along. Grandpa yells “Shoot- Shoot!”.

to find out how this story ends, get the book!