Robert DeWitt, tuscaloosanews

Robert DeWitt

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Recent:
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Past:
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Past articles by Robert:

OUTDOORS: Don’t ignore what’s right under your nose

A friend of mine had the best beer cooler I’ve ever seen in a private home. That’s because it was really a commercial cooler. He bought it from a bar that was closing.If you’ve ever been in a dive bar around here, you’ve seen one like it. It was not very big, would probably hold about 50 cans or bottles, maybe less. It had a 1970s faux wood grain exterior finish, four legs that made it about… → Read More

OUTDOORS: Wild animals not predictable from a human perspective

I remember as a teenager buying record albums. For those too young to remember, vinyl LP records were what we listened to before we listened to cassettes. → Read More

OUTDOORS: January gives hunters something to look forward to

A new year, its sounds so hopeful and optimistic, Its sounds like a fresh start and a time when everything begins again. In reality, let’s face it, the first few days of a new year can be, to quote one of my favorite Christmas movies, about as cheerful, “as a graveyard on a wet Sunday.”To begin with, starting in November, we put a lot of energy into the holidays. Who doesn’t love Thanksgiving… → Read More

OUTDOORS: Boats are nothing but trouble

What if your neighbor, a friendly fellow you’ve gotten to know and like a lot over the past few years, offered to let you sleep with his very attractive wife. That was about what if felt like when Ed told me to use his boat like it was my own while he is away. No matter how tempting it might be, you know it can only lead to trouble.Setting aside the moral implications with the wife metaphor, one… → Read More

OUTDOORS: Some tips on fishing for sharks

A friend of mine is in the forestry business and is a big deer and turkey hunter. I’ve always assumed he was a morning person. His is an early-bird industry and his pursuits are early-bird sports.So, I was surprised to find out he has a hard time dragging his tail out of bed every day and considers 9 a.m. early. I’m glad to know I’m not alone. About the only thing I don’t like about hunting and… → Read More

OUTDOORS: Archie's Magic Place

During one of our semi-annual pilgrimages to Jefferson, the Marengo County town below Demopolis, to get what my children and I proclaim the world’s best barbecue prepared by the Jefferson Community Club, my son, Bob, and I took a detour. I wanted to find Archie’s Place.Archie Giles, who worked for my father, reminded me of Danny DeVito, except that Archie was black. They are about the same… → Read More

OUTDOORS: The losses and finds of fishing

Just about every office has a lost and found. It’s amazing what winds up in it and just as amazing what people claim and don’t claim out of it. → Read More

OUTDOORS: Don't be surprised to see Egyptian geese flying around

It was an ordinary day at the beach down in Fort Morgan. I was staring out at the Gulf when a group of birds caught my eye.Birds are no stranger to the → Read More

OUTDOORS: Some fishermen don't give too much thought about bait

On some of those mornings when I’m headed out to hunt or fish and I’m searching the radio dial for something to listen to at 5 a.m. on a Saturday, I’ll flip it to the AM side and run across Outdoors with Don Dubuc.Although he broadcasts from WWL in the big city of New Orleans, he has a homespun manner that would have sounded right at home on WXAL in Demopolis. Don talks about what the weather is… → Read More

MY TURN: Founders intended an armed populace

Every April, when Americans commemorate Paul Revere’s ride and the militia’s stand at Lexington and Concord in 1775, they are celebrating the fight against gun control.For sure, there were other issues at hand and some would say bigger issues. But the flashpoint for the war was the British Colonial officials’ attempt to seize arms and ammunition from the colonists they ruled. The colonists… → Read More

MY TURN: To prevent school shootings, address mental health crisis

Calls for gun control in the wake of acts by people with mental illness are as predictable as they are absurd. It is simply an exercise in political indulgence by people already inclined toward disarming the American public.Gun control proponents propose gun control because they believe it can be done and it fits their sensibilities. Others ride along because they are like someone untrained in… → Read More

OUTDOORS: Snapshot of an Old South moment

To get a permit to hunt on his estate, I merely knocked on Mr. Whit Compton’s door at his house on Pettus Street in Demopolis and asked him for it. → Read More