Marino's father, Francesco Crinella was known as a great hunter in his
native Italy, and he and his sons were delighted to find that there was
outstanding hunting and fishing to be had in Minnesota (there was some
talk that they selected Minnesota because they knew of the abundance of
wild game). From early Fall until mid-Spring they hunted grouse and
quail, snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits, pheasant and quail, deer and
elk, and ducks and geese. The cold Falls, Winters and Springs allowed
them to store game in outside coolers (actually refrigerators for a good
part of the year), and they stocked up at every opportunity. The cooler
was rarely without venison, which was eaten at least as often as beef
might be eaten in modern American families.
Francesco and his older sons, Domenico ("Dom") and Luigi ("Lou"), were all
fine hunters, but the day-to-day responsibility for bringing in the table
meat soon fell upon the youngest son, Marino who was born in 1904.
To their lasting displeasure, the older boys were soon working
in the open pit iron mines, and were later helping their father develop
the plumbing and steam-fitting business. Marino recalls that when he was
six years old, "Dom" and "Lou" first took him hunting, and taught him how
to stalk and shoot. When he was seven, they gave him a .22 rifle and sent
him out to hunt up some game for the family. There was one catch, they
would allow him only one bullet! This was not out of hardship or
meanness, but because they wanted him to learn to be careful in selecting
his target, and accurate with his one shot. He was also told not to shoot
anything that could not be eaten. To the surprise of his brothers, little
Marino learned to stalk his prey, get close enough for a good shot, and,
more often than not, come home with a fat snowshoe rabbit or a ruffed
grouse, and occasionally with the news that his big brothers would be
needed to help him drag back a big buck.
These hunting habits stayed with him all his life. He was a superb
marksman, with both rifle and shotgun. He could break 100 consecutive
clay pigeons in trap shooting, and his targets were displayed for all to
see at the rifle range, with 10 of 10 shots in the bull's eye at 200
yards. More importantly, he never shot at a target that was out of range,
because he feared that he would only wound the animal, which would then
suffer before eventually dying. He never shot what he could not eat. In
Canada, on a moose-hunting trip, he went for two weeks without seeing a
bull moose in range of his rifle, and was quite frustrated. His guide
suggested that he shoot a black bear that came into close range, but
Marino refused because he was brought up believing that bears were not
edible, and was not about to shoot what he could not eat. He was a
conservative hunter, shooting no more than eight or ten shots to kill a
limit of six ducks, when others in his duck club might shoot two boxes
(50) of shells. He never forgot the lesson his brothers taught him with
the single bullet.
|
