Genuine

I took this image well over 10 years ago of my friend Tom, or as they call him at the mountain man rendezvous, Redwing. Over the past couple of weeks, I have felt that I should share this image of Redwing. When I first met Redwing at a mountain man rendezvous in northern Utah, I was taken in by his genuine down to earth, outgoing personality, he was always a gentleman and showed it. He always had great stories and personal experiences that he loved to share and he was so neat to talk to. He loved the 1840’s mountain man era and the western cowboy reenactment. He earned his living as a trader selling handmade custom knives with bone antler handles which he also would hand carved into animals. To this day I wish I would have acquired one, it would be a true keepsake from Redwing. His craftmanship was extraordinary, he was a true artist. Redwing ran his trade out of a large wall tent at events which he traveled to all over the country. A neat thing about Redwing was he always would bring his wife and grandkids. My family and I became good friends with him and his family and for several years would look forward to meeting and catching up every spring at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, I lost contact with Redwing when the rendezvous died out in northern Utah, and both of us stopped attending for reasons of our own.  But when I look back at this image of Redwing, all the memory’s start to flow and he reminds me of genuine simpler times, good friends, good people, and great stories to be told…