We moved out into the country during the summer after my sixth grade year. What is now a housing edition on the corner of I-20 and Pleasant View Drive was 2 4-acre plats that my folks had bought. Pleasant View Drive was a 1/2 mile or so dirt/gravel road off of Pleasnat Ridge Road. Pleasant Ridge was a narrow, winding poorly maintained two-lane asphalt road. It was maintained by Tarrant County Precint 2 which meant there wasn't a whole lot of money for upkeep.
East of Pleasant View on Pleasant Ridge was a steep hill. It was called both hiccup hill and Morales Hill. Kelly Elliott Road ended at the top of the hill and that was how wide the hill was, just enough for the narrow raod and then it dropped off on the other side. When you drove over the hill your stomach would come up in your throat and cause you to hiccup. It was called Morales Hill becasue a guy named Morales owned the 4-5 acres on the north side of Plesant Ridge down to where Kelly Elliot started again going north at the bottom of the hill. The hill was full of slum shacks that Morales rented out.
Mom and Dad had bought the first 4 acre tract where we actually put our house a few years before we actually moved out there. I can remember having a garden with lots of tomatoes. I went to all the houses up and down and around Sharon Street in toen selling about 2 pounds of tomatoes for 10 cents. The first tract was heavily wooded, except where we put the garden. The second 4-acre tract was almost barren of trees. An old farmer had owned it. They had several kids and they all lived in a 4 room shack of a house. They boys slept out on the porch during warm weather. Of course, they were gone by the time we moved out there. We used the house for a hen house where we kept out chickens.
We also bulldozed out a stock tank (lake) and built a barn with 3 stalls for our horses. The lake was stocked with perch and largemouth bass. Crappie and catfish washed in from the stock tank on the adjacent property when it rained heavily and the water ran over their spillway. We had a great time fishing in the lake. We brought my Little League team out there for a party after we had finished 2nd in the city. I remember Steve Perry got a hook stuck in his head when he tried to cast out his line. I can also remember fishing out there in the summer when the fish were so hungry they'd bite anything you threw out there. After running out of grasshoppers, worms, and nits of cheese we tried sticking dried leaves on the hook and they even hit that! We caught 50-60 fish in one day. I never cleaned a single one. My mom always did that.
The chickens we had were really unique. A friend of my mom had some chickens that they'd hatched from eggs sent to them from an ad in the Weekly Reader. The chickens were from Chile and they laid different colored eggs. As I recall there 3 or 4 hens and one mean rooster. The rooster was black with a golden neck. When we gathered the eggs we had to keep an eye on him because he would pack at you and spur you with the claws on his feet. He was really mean. One of the chicked was kind of a mattled black and white and was smaller than the rest and dashed around everywhere very quickly. We called her Speedy. She laid blue or bluish green eggs. Another was reddish brown but had feathers coming on either side that looked like a big bushy mustache. We called her Whiskers. She laid brownish pink eggs with purple splotches in them. The other hen was an ordinary reddish brown. I don't remember her name and her eggs were solid brownish pink. We had our picture taken ans a story was run in the Citizen Journal about our chickens that laid the colored eggs. My mom is holding Whiskers in the picture with Gary and me on either side and some of the colored eggs and a normal store bought white egg lying side by side in front of us.
Our first horse was Brown. That was his name and that was his color. He was an old horse, really more of a pony. He was larger than a Shetland pony but not as large as a normal horse. We learned to ride on him. I think we paid $75 for him including his saddle and bridle. The second horse we bought was Beauty. She was a dark brown and white Paint. Her previous owner was a barrel racer and Beauty was her horse. However, Beauty had one rear hip that was higher than the other so she wasn't a competitive quality horse. She has avery easy nature and we had her several years. As we got older Brown was too small so we sold him and bought a pool table with money. We also bought anotherPaint mare. Midnight was a back and white paint. When we had races she always beat Beauty. Just up the road from us a guy had bought the land and started clearing the land to build a house. He also put in a nice dirt road that made an ideal race track. We'd take the horses up there to race them. I'll never forget day when Verne was over. He was riding Midnight and Gary or someone else who'd come over was riding beauty. The went up to the track to race. It was about a 1/4 mile away. My dad and I and I don't know who else were sitting in front of our house waiting for them to come back. We heard someone holler "Go!" and we knew the race was started. 10-15 seconds later you could here Verne hollering, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa dammit whoa!" I still laugh thinking about him hollering and trying to get Midnight to slow down.
We built a swimming pool ourselves using a kit that we bought from Montgomery Wards. There was a natural depression and gully out in front of the house by the garage, so we put the pool there. There would be less dirt to dig out that way. We dug the deep end until we hit sandstone and couldn't go any deeper. Then after digging around everywhere else to the specifications of the plans, we lined it with sand, and put in a vinyl liner. And, that was the pool. We had a lot of church swimming parties and played a lot of "baseball" games in the pool.
Growing up in the country was great. Swimming, fishing, and riding horses were great. On the down side was cleaning the pool, cleaning out the stalls, and hauling hay. We literally shovelled the crap out of the stall and into a wheelbarrow. Then we dumped it in a pile outside the barn. Later we'd come back with the tractor, scoop up the manure, and dump it in the garden area. That would later get plowed under for the fertilizer. Hauling hay wasn't much fun either. It was hot, sweaty, and itchy. Gary and I got into more than one fight while hauling hay. One time we were hauling hay in using an old 1952 pickup over in Kennedale. We were making 8 cents a bale to haul it out of the field and stack it where the farmer wanted it. At the same time he was paying another couple of guys by the hour to use his tractor and his trailer to stack bales from ther same field. After talking to them we realized that they were actually making more money and using the other guys equipment. ALso, they got to goof off whenever the owner wasn't around , which was half the time. It didn't look so bad becasue they could put a lot more bales of hay on the trailer than we could on the truck. We got back at them though toward the end of the day. A big rain storm was coming in and the farmer wanted us to haul in hay from an alfalfa field. Those bales were a whole lot heavier. He offered us more money, 10 cents, but we said no. We needed to get our own bales home. The other guys had to work doubly hard with the owner right there working with them before the rains came.
Since this has been a book already, I'll quit. I may revisit this someday.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Sixth Grade
I have lots of stories that I remember about 6th grade, but I don't remember my teacher's name. I had her for everything but muisc and math. For Math we had Mr. Farmer.
Sixth Grade was my artsy year. Martha Sue would have been proud of me. Besides doing the lettering for many of the class posters and had two paintings that were selected class winners and were entered into the citywide art contest. One was a drawing of a horse's head and the other was an abstract with lots of mixed colors and could be construed as a field of wildflowers.
I was also asked by the music teacher to be Hansel in Hansel and Gretel but it would have required me to miss PE for all the special rehearsals. We were playing the other classes in softball to determine the sixth grade champions and I wasn't about to miss that. I told her no and was a lead Sandman instead. I can still remember part of my little solo. "The little sandman am I, and nothing evil plan I. You children I love dearly and ??? ??? ?? I don;t remeber from there.
During the winter months, probably February, we had a heavy, heavy snow one day while we were in school. School was officially closed during the morning and parents were allowed to pick up their kids and take them home. Since we lived across the street I decided I needed to go home for lunch. It took some convincing but my teacher finally let me go. Of course, I stayed home once I got there. Gary stayed and went to Mr. Farmer's Math class after school. Since there were just a few kids their Mr Farmer taught them a special formula that we would learn in junior high, but he made the kids promise not to tell anyone else. Gary still hasn't told me to this day. I think it was the area of a circle or triangle or something. I couldn't believe Gary would never tell me.
Also during that second semester Tommy Waterson got into a fight. He was the Safety Patrol representative from our class. As punishment for the fight he was kicked off Safety Patrol. The teacher asked for a volunteer to take his place and I raised my hand. I was the only one, so I got it. I got to wear a big silver badge like a policeman's and manned a crosswalk at the corner of the school to stop traffic and let kids cross the street. Now days we have hired adult crossing guards.
During the last week of school the sixth grade had a swim party where we all went out to Lucas Park. Lucas Park was on the edge of town at about Arkansas and Fielder. My mom had made Gary and me a towel cover-up. It was like a jacket or a shirt. Anyway, I wore my swimsuit and the coverup to school instead of pants and a shirt. One of the linemen on the football team started making fun of me by the bicycle rack for wearing the towel thing. I told him to shut-up or I was going to puch him in the nose. He didn't and I did. One right hand to the nose and it was busted. He was bleeding everywhere. He didn;t tease me anymore. He also didn't tell on me so I didn't get into trouble.
When I talked about 5th grade I talked about my broken finger clicking on the piano keys at the recital. What I didn't say was the recital was at the Crow Elementary auditorium and they made do a little fashion show type walk out to the piano, do a litle turnaround, and then play. All the time thet where making some comments about what we were wearing. Gary and I played a duet of Skip to My Lou. For my sixth grade recital I played the Marines Hymn. For my last recital (7th grade) I played Battle Hymn of the Republic. You've heard me play it more than once. I can still play it, sort of.
Anyway, that was sixth grade. We moved out into the country that summer so that was my last year at CB Berry and the Arilington School district.
Sixth Grade was my artsy year. Martha Sue would have been proud of me. Besides doing the lettering for many of the class posters and had two paintings that were selected class winners and were entered into the citywide art contest. One was a drawing of a horse's head and the other was an abstract with lots of mixed colors and could be construed as a field of wildflowers.
I was also asked by the music teacher to be Hansel in Hansel and Gretel but it would have required me to miss PE for all the special rehearsals. We were playing the other classes in softball to determine the sixth grade champions and I wasn't about to miss that. I told her no and was a lead Sandman instead. I can still remember part of my little solo. "The little sandman am I, and nothing evil plan I. You children I love dearly and ??? ??? ?? I don;t remeber from there.
During the winter months, probably February, we had a heavy, heavy snow one day while we were in school. School was officially closed during the morning and parents were allowed to pick up their kids and take them home. Since we lived across the street I decided I needed to go home for lunch. It took some convincing but my teacher finally let me go. Of course, I stayed home once I got there. Gary stayed and went to Mr. Farmer's Math class after school. Since there were just a few kids their Mr Farmer taught them a special formula that we would learn in junior high, but he made the kids promise not to tell anyone else. Gary still hasn't told me to this day. I think it was the area of a circle or triangle or something. I couldn't believe Gary would never tell me.
Also during that second semester Tommy Waterson got into a fight. He was the Safety Patrol representative from our class. As punishment for the fight he was kicked off Safety Patrol. The teacher asked for a volunteer to take his place and I raised my hand. I was the only one, so I got it. I got to wear a big silver badge like a policeman's and manned a crosswalk at the corner of the school to stop traffic and let kids cross the street. Now days we have hired adult crossing guards.
During the last week of school the sixth grade had a swim party where we all went out to Lucas Park. Lucas Park was on the edge of town at about Arkansas and Fielder. My mom had made Gary and me a towel cover-up. It was like a jacket or a shirt. Anyway, I wore my swimsuit and the coverup to school instead of pants and a shirt. One of the linemen on the football team started making fun of me by the bicycle rack for wearing the towel thing. I told him to shut-up or I was going to puch him in the nose. He didn't and I did. One right hand to the nose and it was busted. He was bleeding everywhere. He didn;t tease me anymore. He also didn't tell on me so I didn't get into trouble.
When I talked about 5th grade I talked about my broken finger clicking on the piano keys at the recital. What I didn't say was the recital was at the Crow Elementary auditorium and they made do a little fashion show type walk out to the piano, do a litle turnaround, and then play. All the time thet where making some comments about what we were wearing. Gary and I played a duet of Skip to My Lou. For my sixth grade recital I played the Marines Hymn. For my last recital (7th grade) I played Battle Hymn of the Republic. You've heard me play it more than once. I can still play it, sort of.
Anyway, that was sixth grade. We moved out into the country that summer so that was my last year at CB Berry and the Arilington School district.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Fifth Grade
Fifth Grade was one of my all time favorite years. I had Miss Sisk, now Mrs. Vance Hunt in our church, and it was her first year to teach. She was really wonderful.
Our room was again in the temporary buildings. I found it without any problem this year. Our "lockers" were really just open shelves mounted on the wall with would dividers every 18 inches or so. Miss Sisk's mother made nice little yellow cutains for each of the lockers. It was really pretty.
Miss Sisk went to our church and I often saw her there. That's why I was so surprised when I found out that she was going to vote for John F. Kennedy. How could she vote for Kennedy? Everyone knew he was Catholic and we couldn't have the Pope running the country. My folks had supported LBJ until he accepted the VP slot with Kennedy. Then they switched to Nixon. I can remember going to the Nixon Arlington campaign headquarters and even doing some work there.
I did really well in Miss Sisk's class and made excellent grades. I think that was the year I broke my right index finger. They put it in a curved splint of foam with an outside cover of heavy aluminum. I had to play the piano recital with my index finger curved and in this metal splint. I reworked my fingerings so that I played all the second finger notes with my middle finger, but sometimes there was no way around it and you hear a loud click adn then the note as my metal splint hit the key. That was also when I hit the inside the park home run off Mike Nicole in Little League.
Miss Sisk, now Mrs. Hunt was a great teacher and has remained a good friend all these years. Vance Hunt was a car racer. He regularly drove a dragster at Green Valley Raceway. It was a 1/4 mile track and they reached really high speeds in that short time. They had a parachute that opened at the end of the race to help stop them beofre they hit the wall at the end of the track. As a condition of them getting married, Vance had to quit driving the cars but he continued to help build them and was part of a race team. One day, on the car he would have been driving, the chute failed to open and the car wrecked killing the driver.
That was 5th grade and it was really a good year.
Our room was again in the temporary buildings. I found it without any problem this year. Our "lockers" were really just open shelves mounted on the wall with would dividers every 18 inches or so. Miss Sisk's mother made nice little yellow cutains for each of the lockers. It was really pretty.
Miss Sisk went to our church and I often saw her there. That's why I was so surprised when I found out that she was going to vote for John F. Kennedy. How could she vote for Kennedy? Everyone knew he was Catholic and we couldn't have the Pope running the country. My folks had supported LBJ until he accepted the VP slot with Kennedy. Then they switched to Nixon. I can remember going to the Nixon Arlington campaign headquarters and even doing some work there.
I did really well in Miss Sisk's class and made excellent grades. I think that was the year I broke my right index finger. They put it in a curved splint of foam with an outside cover of heavy aluminum. I had to play the piano recital with my index finger curved and in this metal splint. I reworked my fingerings so that I played all the second finger notes with my middle finger, but sometimes there was no way around it and you hear a loud click adn then the note as my metal splint hit the key. That was also when I hit the inside the park home run off Mike Nicole in Little League.
Miss Sisk, now Mrs. Hunt was a great teacher and has remained a good friend all these years. Vance Hunt was a car racer. He regularly drove a dragster at Green Valley Raceway. It was a 1/4 mile track and they reached really high speeds in that short time. They had a parachute that opened at the end of the race to help stop them beofre they hit the wall at the end of the track. As a condition of them getting married, Vance had to quit driving the cars but he continued to help build them and was part of a race team. One day, on the car he would have been driving, the chute failed to open and the car wrecked killing the driver.
That was 5th grade and it was really a good year.
Fourth Grade
Again, not a whole lot happened. I do remember not being able to find my class on the first day of school. There were some classes inside the main building but my name was on any of the lists by the door. I went out to the temporary buildings. The first building was for 4th grade and the rest were for 5th grade, at least that was what I was told and how it had been the year before. My name wasn't on either door of the first temporary building. I was so upset that I couldn't find my room that I cried. A teacher or someone saw me and came over to help. It was then that I found out there was one more 4th grade class over in the next temporary building that used to be just 4th grade. Mrs. Bernard's class and my name was there.
I think it was also in 4th grade that we had to learn to cut out letters from construction paper. It was a homework assignment in my class and I had a terrible time doing it and didn't do it very well. My cuts weren't crisp and straight, they were sometime torn in appearance. I didn't get them lined up perfectly straight and, worst of all, my Y was abysmal. It was much smaller than the other letters. The whole thing just didn't look good, but I did it and turned it in. Mrs. Bernard graded the letters and passed them back out to the class. After everyone else had gotten their letters back she held up mine in front of the class. "This one didn't have a name on it, whose assignment is this?" The whole class laughed and made comments about how poorly it had been done. The Y looked even more hideous. Holding my head down I had to admit the paper was mine. The grade was a D. I was humiliated.
From then on I learned how to make the letters right with crisp cuts and straight line. I even learned how to mat different colors of the letter behind the top letter. By the time I was in 6th grade I was chosen to make the letters for the posters for the class that hung on the wall for everyone to see all year.
And that was 4th grade.
I think it was also in 4th grade that we had to learn to cut out letters from construction paper. It was a homework assignment in my class and I had a terrible time doing it and didn't do it very well. My cuts weren't crisp and straight, they were sometime torn in appearance. I didn't get them lined up perfectly straight and, worst of all, my Y was abysmal. It was much smaller than the other letters. The whole thing just didn't look good, but I did it and turned it in. Mrs. Bernard graded the letters and passed them back out to the class. After everyone else had gotten their letters back she held up mine in front of the class. "This one didn't have a name on it, whose assignment is this?" The whole class laughed and made comments about how poorly it had been done. The Y looked even more hideous. Holding my head down I had to admit the paper was mine. The grade was a D. I was humiliated.
From then on I learned how to make the letters right with crisp cuts and straight line. I even learned how to mat different colors of the letter behind the top letter. By the time I was in 6th grade I was chosen to make the letters for the posters for the class that hung on the wall for everyone to see all year.
And that was 4th grade.
Third Grade
My thrird grade year at CB Berry was relatively uneventful and there is not a whole lot that I remember, but here are a few things.
Third grade marked the start of my brother Gary and I being in the same grade. Although he passed he was having a problem with phonetics (or frenetics as one unnamed relative seriously called it) so my parents held him back to repeat third grade. Besides, he had started school early, like I had done, and that put him in the right grade for his birth date.
Mrs. Thompson was my original 3rd grade teacher. However, she was only there a month or so when she had to resign. She was pregnant. In htose days a teacher had to notify the administration immediately if she discovered she was pregnant. A pregnant teacher was simply not allowed. I guess it would somehow have damaged our minds or morals. I don't know, that's just the way it was. Mrs. Anderson took her place and was really nice.
I broad jumped 13 1/2 feet. Really! I'd start 30 or 40 feet away, run as fast as I could, and jump when I came to the lead rope. I'd land on my butt and slide for another several feet. We did the broad jump by the swing sets. After I had won our broad jump contest, Mrs. Anderson sent someone into her classroom to bring back a ruler so we could measure it. 13 1/2 feet. I know I couldn't do that know and I'm not sure I could have even done it in college.
So much for third grade.
Third grade marked the start of my brother Gary and I being in the same grade. Although he passed he was having a problem with phonetics (or frenetics as one unnamed relative seriously called it) so my parents held him back to repeat third grade. Besides, he had started school early, like I had done, and that put him in the right grade for his birth date.
Mrs. Thompson was my original 3rd grade teacher. However, she was only there a month or so when she had to resign. She was pregnant. In htose days a teacher had to notify the administration immediately if she discovered she was pregnant. A pregnant teacher was simply not allowed. I guess it would somehow have damaged our minds or morals. I don't know, that's just the way it was. Mrs. Anderson took her place and was really nice.
I broad jumped 13 1/2 feet. Really! I'd start 30 or 40 feet away, run as fast as I could, and jump when I came to the lead rope. I'd land on my butt and slide for another several feet. We did the broad jump by the swing sets. After I had won our broad jump contest, Mrs. Anderson sent someone into her classroom to bring back a ruler so we could measure it. 13 1/2 feet. I know I couldn't do that know and I'm not sure I could have even done it in college.
So much for third grade.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Top Boy
Top Boy, that's the title Handley Junior High bestowed on the 9th grader voted Student Body President except they had a Top Boy and a Top Girl and had a new election each semester. To win Top Boy you had to have a certain grade point average, formally enter the race, and make a speech for the school assembly.
John Tandy, a friend of mine and a member of the basketball team, won the first semester. I decided to run the second semester after encouragement from my homeroom and English teacher. I think her name was Mrs. Stewart, but I can't remember. She was probably in her 50's, rather large, but a good teacher. We had just won the basketball city championship, so I had a good chance of winning.
The day before the election I withdrew my name. I didn't want to give a speech. The morning of the election Mrs. Stewart asked me if I had my speech ready. When I told her I had withdrawn she got mad. "Get down to the office right now and put your name back on the ballot!" I don't remember what else she said but she was emphatic that I was going to enter.
I went down to the office and told them I'd changed my mind again and wanted to be on the ballot. They had already prepared the ballot but they hadn't run it off on the mimeograph machine. The names were in alphabetical order and to add me would put me out of order. After checking with the principal the secretary said OK. They typed my name on the master as the last name. It was slightly off register with the rest of the names but I was on the ballot.
I can still remember the "speech" I delivered to the assembly. Some of the people spoke a long time and some for just a few minutes. Mine was short.
"I'm Charles Goodyear and if you vote for me I will do my best to uphold the high honor of Handley Junior High."
That was it. One sentence, not even 10 seconds.
There were 5 guys on the ballot, so there was the possibility of a runoff. I only remember one guy who ran, Dan Young. He'd run the first semester and lost to Tandy. He was a big guy but didn't play any sports. He was in the band. In high school he was in ROTC and was the highest ranking officer in the corp. He had given a very nice, lengthy speech.
When the votes were counted I won easily. I won 98% of the vote in the 7th grade classes and about 95% in the 8th grade classes. I even won over 50% in the 9th grade classes. We only had about 100-120 people in each grade and I won about 300-40.
For my official duties I had to introduce one speaker at an assembly. I'd never met the guy or even heard of him. He was supposed to be an east Fort Worth icon and was a scoutmaster or something. Anyway, I introduced him and acted like a knew him and that all I had to do all semester.
That's the only time I ever ran for an office in school.
When I was a senior everyone who had the qualifying grade point average was put on the ballot at the beginning of the school year for Student Council President. Since that was the start of football season it was pretty much a given that a football player would win. Todd Webster, a football player and good friend, had actively campaigned for President. He'd been the class president as a sophomore and junior. I was surprised to finish second and be named Student Body Vice President. I hadn't asked anyone to vote for me and I had voted for Todd. I actually won my homeroom . I was always proud of that.
John Tandy, a friend of mine and a member of the basketball team, won the first semester. I decided to run the second semester after encouragement from my homeroom and English teacher. I think her name was Mrs. Stewart, but I can't remember. She was probably in her 50's, rather large, but a good teacher. We had just won the basketball city championship, so I had a good chance of winning.
The day before the election I withdrew my name. I didn't want to give a speech. The morning of the election Mrs. Stewart asked me if I had my speech ready. When I told her I had withdrawn she got mad. "Get down to the office right now and put your name back on the ballot!" I don't remember what else she said but she was emphatic that I was going to enter.
I went down to the office and told them I'd changed my mind again and wanted to be on the ballot. They had already prepared the ballot but they hadn't run it off on the mimeograph machine. The names were in alphabetical order and to add me would put me out of order. After checking with the principal the secretary said OK. They typed my name on the master as the last name. It was slightly off register with the rest of the names but I was on the ballot.
I can still remember the "speech" I delivered to the assembly. Some of the people spoke a long time and some for just a few minutes. Mine was short.
"I'm Charles Goodyear and if you vote for me I will do my best to uphold the high honor of Handley Junior High."
That was it. One sentence, not even 10 seconds.
There were 5 guys on the ballot, so there was the possibility of a runoff. I only remember one guy who ran, Dan Young. He'd run the first semester and lost to Tandy. He was a big guy but didn't play any sports. He was in the band. In high school he was in ROTC and was the highest ranking officer in the corp. He had given a very nice, lengthy speech.
When the votes were counted I won easily. I won 98% of the vote in the 7th grade classes and about 95% in the 8th grade classes. I even won over 50% in the 9th grade classes. We only had about 100-120 people in each grade and I won about 300-40.
For my official duties I had to introduce one speaker at an assembly. I'd never met the guy or even heard of him. He was supposed to be an east Fort Worth icon and was a scoutmaster or something. Anyway, I introduced him and acted like a knew him and that all I had to do all semester.
That's the only time I ever ran for an office in school.
When I was a senior everyone who had the qualifying grade point average was put on the ballot at the beginning of the school year for Student Council President. Since that was the start of football season it was pretty much a given that a football player would win. Todd Webster, a football player and good friend, had actively campaigned for President. He'd been the class president as a sophomore and junior. I was surprised to finish second and be named Student Body Vice President. I hadn't asked anyone to vote for me and I had voted for Todd. I actually won my homeroom . I was always proud of that.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Big Fish
Jack and Emily were little kids and Ben wasn't here yet when I caught my big fish. I must give credit to Emily. Without her I would have never caught the fish. Here is how it happened.
We were on vacation in the mountains and were fishing on the Pecos River by the lakes at Cowles. Jack was playing in the dirt under a huge tree by the river. Emily wanted to walk with me and watch me fish. Jack was about 3 and Emily about 6.
Fishing had been lousy. We hadn't even gotten a strike from the bridge at Cowles down to the lower lake. I continued to fish and Emily continued to follow with me around the bend in the river around the lakes. Hole after hole, still nothing.
We finally got to a place where the bank on our side of the river becomes a cliff. The grass and the trail were wet so I told Emily to stay where she was and not to follow me while I tried to climb up the trail and see if there was any holes that I could get to from the side of the cliff.
If Emily ever wonders why Abby doesn't do what she tells her to do, she just needs to think back to her own childhood. Just like Abby would do, Emily ignored what I said and followed me up on the side of the cliff. It was a 10-15 foot drop to the river and she would have been swept away if she fell. Kay Ellen would have killed us both. I had decided I wasn't going to bother fishing the hole because I'd had no luck so far and didn't want to leave Emily by herself. When she came through the brush up the trail, crying because I'd left her I decided to go ahead and try to fish the hole down below.
Directly below us on our little ledge was another ledge that was a foot or tw0 below the water line. It was about and foot wide and 6 feet long and then dropped off into a deep hole. I dropped my line in with the salmon egg bait on the ledge and watched it float down the ledge and into the hole. When it dropped into the hole, "Wham!" A fish hit the bait hard. I set the hook and pulled up. I could tell it was a big fish.
I told Emily we had a fish and it was a big one. We'd have to get it up or no one would believe us. After a few moments I had the fish up onto our little ledge. It was HUGE! It was the biggest rainbow trout I had ever cuaght and the biggest one I had ever seen. It had to be 2 feet long and 20 pounds. (Exagerations are allowed and even expected in fish stories.) I had nothing big enough to put it in. The little plastic bags we carried for the normal trout would barely hold its head.
I wanted to see if I could get another fish out of that hole so I tried putting a big rock on the fish to hold it dow but it just flipped it off. Finally, I had Emily sit on it. While she sat on it I tried the hole again but had no luck. I decided I better get Emily off the ledge and the fish back to the cabin.
Still, I had nothing to put it in, so I took off my shirt and tied a knot in the sleeve of my long-sleeve shirt. I then stuffed the fish down into the sleeve and it completely filled the arm. We carried it back to the cabin like that.
When we got back with it we measured it. As I recall it was 16 or 18 inches long and over two pounds. That's a big fish for the streams around our cabin. No one in our family (Gary, Gary Don et al) has caught one bigger up there, and it's all because Emily didn't do what I told her to do.
We were on vacation in the mountains and were fishing on the Pecos River by the lakes at Cowles. Jack was playing in the dirt under a huge tree by the river. Emily wanted to walk with me and watch me fish. Jack was about 3 and Emily about 6.
Fishing had been lousy. We hadn't even gotten a strike from the bridge at Cowles down to the lower lake. I continued to fish and Emily continued to follow with me around the bend in the river around the lakes. Hole after hole, still nothing.
We finally got to a place where the bank on our side of the river becomes a cliff. The grass and the trail were wet so I told Emily to stay where she was and not to follow me while I tried to climb up the trail and see if there was any holes that I could get to from the side of the cliff.
If Emily ever wonders why Abby doesn't do what she tells her to do, she just needs to think back to her own childhood. Just like Abby would do, Emily ignored what I said and followed me up on the side of the cliff. It was a 10-15 foot drop to the river and she would have been swept away if she fell. Kay Ellen would have killed us both. I had decided I wasn't going to bother fishing the hole because I'd had no luck so far and didn't want to leave Emily by herself. When she came through the brush up the trail, crying because I'd left her I decided to go ahead and try to fish the hole down below.
Directly below us on our little ledge was another ledge that was a foot or tw0 below the water line. It was about and foot wide and 6 feet long and then dropped off into a deep hole. I dropped my line in with the salmon egg bait on the ledge and watched it float down the ledge and into the hole. When it dropped into the hole, "Wham!" A fish hit the bait hard. I set the hook and pulled up. I could tell it was a big fish.
I told Emily we had a fish and it was a big one. We'd have to get it up or no one would believe us. After a few moments I had the fish up onto our little ledge. It was HUGE! It was the biggest rainbow trout I had ever cuaght and the biggest one I had ever seen. It had to be 2 feet long and 20 pounds. (Exagerations are allowed and even expected in fish stories.) I had nothing big enough to put it in. The little plastic bags we carried for the normal trout would barely hold its head.
I wanted to see if I could get another fish out of that hole so I tried putting a big rock on the fish to hold it dow but it just flipped it off. Finally, I had Emily sit on it. While she sat on it I tried the hole again but had no luck. I decided I better get Emily off the ledge and the fish back to the cabin.
Still, I had nothing to put it in, so I took off my shirt and tied a knot in the sleeve of my long-sleeve shirt. I then stuffed the fish down into the sleeve and it completely filled the arm. We carried it back to the cabin like that.
When we got back with it we measured it. As I recall it was 16 or 18 inches long and over two pounds. That's a big fish for the streams around our cabin. No one in our family (Gary, Gary Don et al) has caught one bigger up there, and it's all because Emily didn't do what I told her to do.
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