Things I remember: I went everywhere with my Grandfather. I suppose you could say I was his shadow. And some of my best memories are the times that as a young boy I would be on the St. Johns River or Lake George with him when he was doing his job. Fishing trot lines or pulling crab pots , eel pots and fish baskets. This one particular night we were on the lake running trot lines. The blind mosquitoes were terrible that night, they were so thick that you couldnt breath without them getting in your mouth and throat. Pops was sitting at the bow of the boat working methodically at guiding the boat down the trot line one hand over the other. When he came to a bare hook he would bait it, when he came to a catfish or whatever was on the hook he would take his catfish shaker, which was really an ice pick that he had heated the end until it was bright red and then bent it in a fish hook style. He would take the shaker and run it down the leader line to the fishes mouth, hold the fish over the area behind him and with a quick flip of the wrist, flip the fish off the hook and into the bottom of the boat. Sometimes there would be an occasional eel or sting ray that is one that you had to be careful with, just like the stingrays in the ocean they have a long barbed tail and will flip the tail around and sink the barbed end into whatever is closest. As I said this night was really bad for the blind mosquitoes and I had covered up my head with an old slicker coat (rain coat) and was begging him to get under there with me, I knew he had to be miserable and the fact that he had a small light attached to the front of his cap to help him see wasnt helping him any, the mosquitoes seemed to hone in on that light he had so many around his face that I could barely see it. When I pleaded with him to get out of them that was when he taught me a lesson in life. He said (Son you have to finish the job you started.) and that is the way he lived his life, and I know that I have carried that philosophy with me through out my life. If you are going to take on a job, then see it through till the end or dont start it. He once told me that he could do anything for a year and then after that year was up if he wasnt happy he could find something else to do. And thats the way Pops was about everything, He worked hard and he did whatever it took to take care of his family. We didnt have a lot but what we had was because he and my Grandmother worked hard all of their lives.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 02:05:57 +0000
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