Let me tell you about my neighbor, Clayton Whitehouse. His wife Joyce and his friends call him Whitey. I call him Whitey. He owns a big Florida “estate” with lots of palm trees and oceanfront greenery. There is a big cyclone fence between his land and my trailer park. We used to chat over his fence.

Then, one winter, I returned to my trailer to discover something wonderful. A metal swinging door had been installed in the cyclone fence by Whitey. This made it convenient for Diane and I to walk our dog on the adjacent greenery and socialize with the Whitehouses. This wonderful gesture of friendship moved me, and I will not soon forget.

Chatting with Whitey the other day, we got a little “philosophical,” which is typical for two aging greybeards. The subject got around to the proverbial “bucket list.” Each of us took a turn at evaluating the state of our respective lists.

This was a not a new subject for me. Jack Nicholson’s movie by the same name was an invitation to introspection. “How is your bucket list coming?” I have asked myself. “The clock is running, old boy, is there a hunt or an angling experience that you are just aching to check off?” When it comes to doing the things in life that I have wanted to do — especially in the realm of hunting and fishing — my cup, that is to say, my “bucket,” truly runneth over.

Like so many young sportsmen, I had dreams that took me beyond the wonderful state of Maine and its excellent sport fishery and diverse hunting opportunities. Looking back over the years, it pleases me to no end that, when the bank account permitted and opportunity knocked, I seized the moment. Elk hunting in Colorado. Fishing the Big Waters in Labrador for lunker brookies. Bow hunting deer in the shadow of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains or chasing native Cutthroat trout in Wyoming. Atlantic salmon in Quebec and Newfoundland. Hunting wild hogs in Southwest Texas.

My bucket list is in very good shape. There is really not much in the outdoor sporting realm that I must do before it’s too late. Oh, it might be nice to do one or two more elk hunts with my sons, if circumstance and health allow, but bucket-list wise, I am a happy man. As I told my neighbor during our afternoon reflection near the seawall, ” For me, it’s all gravy from here on out, Whitey.”

“How about you, Whitey, now that you’ve sold your place for a good buck and have some freedom, have you and Joyce got some things on the bucket list?” I asked.

Mindful that my neighbor — always an adventurous, high energy guy — now has some heart issues. I suspected that there wasn’t much that he had not done or still wanted to do before his race was run.

“Not really,” he said. “Like you, there isn’t much in my bucket list.” A former metal sculptor and ultra-light airplane pilot and plane designer, whose later days have been occupied with the full-time job of maintaining the grounds of his two-acre homestead on the Atlantic ocean, my neighbor said that he’s just looking forward to less physical work and some well-earned “down time.”

He made some memories along the way, too. Once professional diver, scuba and hardhat, he undertook an ultra-light adventure that was one for the books. He did capture this adventure in a book that I helped him produce called “The Daytripper.” At daybreak, on a clear morning in the Florida Keys, he took off in his home-built ultra-light and, with the help of a boy scout compass, navigated his way to the nearest cay in the Bahamas. That evening, with a bagful of huge rock lobsters, and a Bahamian Coast Guard patrol boat in hot pursuit, he made his way back to the Keys in time for supper!

The best part of the story is this: Two other flying budddies were supposed to accompany him on that adventure. They chickened out. Not Whitey. To hell with them. He followed through. There are many other adventure stories like that and Whitey will recount them for you with just a little urging.

You get the point. My neighbor Whitey’s bucket list is short for one reason: He lived life to the fullest when he could.

What about you? What about your bucket list? If it’s long you best get started on it as soon as you can.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] and his new book is “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook.”