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Friday, October 23rd, 2026

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Ralph Loos: Friday of Illinois’ old ‘shotgun season’ was a lesson in hunting heritage

For many Illinois families, north or south or in the middle, the firearms season remains an annual gathering as much as a hunting opportunity, Loos writes. (Stock photo)

Where and when I grew up, the opening Friday of “shotgun season” in Illinois was practically a holiday. We just had to convince the school administrators that we had a legitimate reason to celebrate it – and we did so with wildly illegitimate explanations.
We came up with excuses to skip school that probably sounded a whole lot better to us than they did to the adults listening. Surely, we figured, nobody would suspect that a sudden fever, cough, headache, sore throat or ringing ears had anything to do with the blaze orange vests wrapped around our flannel shirts.

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