His dad remembering Uncle Leon

There's a lot I could say about my Great Uncle Leon and my Great Aunt Lena Loper, but I'll try to give enough background information to make my dad's story relevant.

My first memories of Leon are at his home on the Indian Hills Lake. They had a pretty normal/modest house, but it was on the lake. They had a lot of interesting old things in their house, many hand made items as well. They were clearly outdoors people, with a nice yard and a dock with a small bass fishing boat. 

I can remember fishing with my Uncle Leon and watching him clean the fish on the dock. He seemed really good at cleaning the fish, but you could tell he was already struggling with his hands. At that time he would have been in his 70's, but he still wanted to do all of the things he had grown up doing. 

We knew that he had made a good number of rock tabletops. He and Lena would collect large amounts of fossils and interesting rocks, and then make them into a clear tabletop. I really know nothing of the process, but the tables always had a very unique look. By the time I met and can remember Leon he had stopped building tabletops, but he still had a garage full of rocks, saws, and other tools that he was still hanging on to. I'm sure they were originally expensive, but I was told that Leon still thought he might use them.

A few years after that they had an estate sale. A good number of their things were sold, but they still brought a lot of those handmade items, antiques, and some rocks and tools to a Rolla when they moved. 

So all of that backstory is to say that by the time I met and remember Leon his health and age had taken most of the exciting outdoorsman out of his life. My dad says he can remember being a young boy and visiting Aunt Lena and Uncle Leon out in Wyoming. My dad distinctly remembers Leon picking up my dad and holding him out over the edge of large cliff. Now don't get me wrong, that's dangerous, but it was normal and what my Uncle Leon was used to. As you  can imagine my dad was terrified and that's probably part of the reason he remembers it so well. 

Leon had a bear rug, which is just one of those things you hear about or see in movies, but he had one from a bear he shot himself. He also had an amazing picture that was featured in National Geographic of a mountain lion that had been chased out to the edge of a pointy cliff by a pack of hunting dogs. Leon was a yeoman in the Navy with numerous awards and accolades, he was an incredible writer, and the list goes on.