Hunters had a good opening weekend for the deer season, judging from the bucks hanging in trees and hauled around in the back of pickup trucks.

I used to hunt ducks, pheasants and quail back on the farm (that was before the time of dove hunting), but never went after a deer. When you raise beef, what's the use of eating a wild animal?

Actually, while my dad did allow hunting on our mile of land along the South Platte River, he looked on deer more as pets than as big game animals.

He particularly remembered one old doe who used to practically graze with our holstein milk cows, only to be shot by someone on the last day of the season.

I'm afraid I'm less sympathetic about the deer, however, since, as another Gazette columnist wrote, so many of them seem intent on throwing themselves in front of our cars.

There's a story floating around the Internet about the two hunters who donned deer heads, then drove around with the dummy of a deer hunter strapped on the hood.

They were stopped by a policeman, so the story goes, who wasn't so much concerned about what they were doing as he was about the distraction they were creating for other drivers.

Dr. Bob Stear said he noticed he was getting an odd look from an out-of-state hunter who had brought his dog to the Cambridge veterinarian for treatment after it tangled with a barbed wire fence.

After the hunter had left, Stear remembered that he was still wearing his makeup from an appearance in a church production.

I remember hearing a similar story about a local dentist who was called away from a Halloween costume party by a patient with with an emergency.

I guess I wouldn't mind being treated even by The Tooth Fairy, complete with tutu and ballet slippers, if he helped my toothache.

Paul Schneider bragged last night about his new John Deere tractor -- then fessed up. It was a lawn tractor.

He noted that it cost about twice what his dad's 1941 Model A full-size tractor did when it was new.

Dad had an "A," but I spent more time with the "B" that my grandfather purchased new in 1944 when Dad was away in the Army.

While the "A" had a electric starter, the "B" required the finesse of a hand start. With a two-cylinder, horizontal 17 hp. motor, it didn't require the use of the hazardous hand crank, known for breaking the arms of the inexperienced operators of other tractors.

As I recall, this was the procedure:

Drain the fuel from the sediment bowl.

Open the petcock (one on each cylinder, but just open one) to relieve the compression.

Turn the fuel selector to "G" for gasoline.

Close the choke.

Open the throttle.

Throw the flywheel over a few times.

Close the petcocks.

Crank it over again and hope it starts.

If successful, switch over to "F" for tractor fuel.

If not, call Dad for help.

I've probably gotten the procedures out of order, and forgotten some of them, but hey, I learned to do it 40 years ago.

I bet I could still start one if I needed to pull my car out of the ditch, however.

-- Bruce Crosby last drove a tractor in the Ford administration.