Itches, we’ve all had them. They can be little tiny ones that barely register as an itch. Or great big huge ones that take over your whole life for a moment, or somewhere in between. If you’ve ever had one of those plaster casts they used to use in the last century when you busted your whatever, you probably have a good idea what an itch is. In fact you’re probably one of those that bent a coat hanger just right so it would slide down between the cast and your affected part so you could get at it and scratch like the devil. Even though you knew you shouldna done it. You done it. Any price was reasonable when you could scratch that one place that was driving you nuts.
I think it is pretty safe to say that mountain men had their share of itches. And being the resourceful souls they were they quickly figured out how to get them scratched. Some of them had a favorite scratching stick they carried along in their possibles bag that they had whittled during non-scratching times, just in case the scratching thing came up they wouldn’t be caught flat-footed.
Other’s, the deep thinkers, the more inventive mountain men, developed special ways to get the job done. Now we’re not saying that this scratcher deliberately went out and killed this bear to satisfy his scratching needs, in fact the bear may have been in the act of doing some scratching to him as sort of a volunteer action before it was killed. If so it wasn’t a great leap to figure out that his hide would make a good scratching vehicle in times of need, but also keep him warm at night. And look awfully darn good too.
Mountain men are more than admirable figures. They had to solve a lot of life’s problems on the fly anyway they could, so if they could get the job done and look good doing it that was even better. If you went to the 81st Green River Rendezvous at Pinedale, Wyoming, there were a bunch of them there. Mountain men that is. They’re just downright cool. Ask any one of them.
