FUN MONDAY - Fish Stories

It’s FUN MONDAY time again are our host, the joyful and introspective Olive, and I have the privilage to call a friend.

The Host - Olive from UR OLIVE

The Assignment - Olive would like to hear about your *whopper* of a fishing story. Yes, you heard it correctly whether it is fictional or non fictional she want to hear a fishing story from us. An example would be if you catch a minnow and tell it that you caught a swordfish (exaggeration is the operative word here). Did you hear me say show your photo(s)? Of course you did – be creative.

Way back in the late 70’s I took a few extra class and got that HS diploma a semester earlier. Since I was 13, I had been working under the table at a local grocery store. Well really not under a table, but off the books (too young you know) so when I turned 17, I went to the Flo (cashier manager) to see about getting a job (Cashier seam like a glamour job, I stock shelves, picked though fruit, and got to clean the butcher shop. She Flo informed me that I was too young. I told Gig (my coworker to let Sullivan know, If I wasn’t good enough to work on the book I wasn’t good enough to work off the books either and I would find another job). Well before I made it the 500 feet to the house Sully and Donnie had both called to get me back. But I needed a change, made nice with the owner, of course it may have help that I called him Uncle Sully (though he was no blood relative, and that I knew him and his wife since my birth.) Also at one time or another we all worked at the store including my grandfather who was a meat cutter, for a short time because Sully needed the help. So, I knew if I needed a summer, part time, or holiday job there would always be one at Pechin's

The prices featured here are in cents. The picture is NOT doctored, and it's from 2006 (notice how they call them Freedom Fries?) This menu was on the wall in Pechin's Cafeteria in Dunbar. They opened about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, the whole shopping strip (all of it Pechins) this place burned down last year, shortly after Sully died. When I work there the special was 69 cents (veg. potatoes mashed, and a meat usually meat loaf or Salisbury stake (other than the shape I couldn’t tell the difference)) We thought it was great fund to wear T-Shirt Pechins 69 cent special - I was too naive to get the double entendre.

So I needed a change and my sole mate (or so I thought at the time) got a job in Oklahoma as whitewater guide on the Arkansas River, for the summer. So what was I to do. Infer (never actual saying what I was doing) I was head off once again, to one of the numerous summer camp that my parents send me to year after year. (Could be as a kid when I was left home, to play for more than three days, there would be an emergency room visit or that they just didn’t like me.) In my parents eyes, I have never aged past 1. Summer camp was a staple in my life so they would not imagined, anything diffrent. So with sleeping bag in the trunk off I headed to Oklahoma to be with Jesse. (Insert Hearthrob here.)

Now I figure I would get a job as a camp cook, or supply boat something on that order. I did have the charm and smooch that Jesse did but I was a good hard worker and didn't think there would be a problem finding a job. There wasn’t, the company that ran the whitewater rafting also ran a ranch. A sheep ranch! Yep a sheep hearder on the Manasha Ridge. So after me physical and dental appointment (they want you to be in good health, there are no sick days watching sheep eat), I was set up to my camp. This could be why I hate camping to this day. All summer long this was my home.

My wagon was not this nice and I don't think it was any where this big.

There was a lot of quiet and a lot of time to think. My job was pretty uneventful, just me, two dogs, (they knew the job better than I did, if they could use the bag phone and get their own kibble there would have been no use for me at all). The sheep were newly sheared and given the shots etc. all clear for a nice long uneventful summer.

My highlight of the week was when Jesse came on his day off, (Mondays and Tuesays)bring fresh meat and real vegetables and fruit (else both were canned I hate canned peas and never could eat canned meats) Once a month I would get three days off and on these days I would meet Jesse and we would go be tourist. I was starved for people and he just wanted to get away from it all (his job required him to deal and play nice nice with people all day long) so we would usual go out with a group of friend to an out of the way place meeting both our needs. It was on when of these excoriation. Jesse, I and a few of our friends head over to Paul Valley. Paul Valley, “Action Figure” capital of the country maybe even the world.

AZRAEL

When his father died, college student Jean-Paul Valley discovered a secret legacy: he was the last defender of the secret Order of St. Dumas, a religious sect that split from the Knights Templar during the Crusades. When he donned his special costume and gave in to the System, the psychological conditioning program he had been subjected to since an infant, he became Azrael, the avenging angel. Batman chose him to use his skills in support of the war on crime, but when he went too far, it led to a confrontation between Batman and his replacement. Never trust a grown man into action figures

So after viewing the muesum, we headed out onto the water, for the boys to try their hand (pun intended) at NOODLING (video not for young ears or eyes). Noodling is a testosterone driven activity and something no sane person would do. But wait, the same maybe said of whitewater rafting and I loved the rush that that gives you. Well the boys were all playing in the muddy water as Helga and I were sunning ourselves on the boat. Well it was hot and I was laying on the boat not real thinking and the boys were all playing in the water. So I lazely dangle my hand/arm into the water. Wam the next thing you something has grab my arm. I did want every red blooded American would do. SCREAM and yank my arm out of the murky water. What should I see but a 30lb catfish dangling from my arm. Jesse, and the other boys all swim over and assisted in the abstraction of my arm from that fish’s mouth. Can you believe they wanted me to eat that monster, sorry there isn’t tequila in the entire state to get me to play that game, I stick with some good BBQ.

That’s my story and I sticking to it.

Thanks for stopping by so for other Fish story head over to UR OLIVE for the rest of the stories.