Samuel N. Walker's Deer Head

One of the dim memories I have of visiting Grandpa (Samuel Nathaniel) and Reil Walker in the early 1950s was of this mounted deer head on their wall. When you're about three years old, things with big eyes that appear to be staring at you regardless of where you stand or sit in a room are very likely to get your attention more than parents begging you to be nice.

There was always something just a bit odd and spooky about heads protruding from walls...

I remember that George and Verona Walker had a varnished fish (a walleye from Minnesota, I think) which was actually pretty cool and less scary. In fact it gave me the idea once to take a bullhead catfish (barely big enough for eating) that I caught in Lake Geode and make my own "trophy which I was sure would be a nice addition to the family living room." So I decided just to do the catfish head, not the whole body (I think we ate it). I followed George's instructions and scraped and scraped the flesh down and put salt on it, which was supposed to preserve it. After several days due to the rather strong smell that got on me whenever I was curing the fish, complaints were being raised whenever I entered the house (and of course the fish was banished from the house), and several days later, before I was done with it, it mysteriously disappeared. It didn't look like a very healthy trophy by that time, anyway, and I probably was forgetting about it and thinking about other important items of the day, such as getting a screwdriver and hammer and taking more electrical devices apart.

I blamed the neighbor's cats for stealing my fish head, but now that I think about it, I'm just not sure.

Trevor Kimble Jr.

The Walker Tour - Photographs from the 21st Century
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