Goin' Fishing

READY TO HIT THE LAKE!

What better to do on a hot summer day than to go fishing.  This photo was made in 1955 at my grandparent's house in Unionville.  The adventuresome young men in the picture are; myself on the left, Richard Cox in the middle and my brother Richard on the right.  As you can see, although we are all barefoot, we are well equipped for fishing with our cane poles, cricket boxes and water jug.  Take special notice of the homemade cricket boxes.  These were the invention of my grandfather Tut who was the greatest bream and white perch fisherman that I have known.  Take special note of the special tin can top that would slide down into the box to keep the crickets from getting out.  In those days you could not just go to the corner store and get crickets but you had to catch your own.  So the crickets were a valuable commodity and we did not want any to escape before we had a chance to drown them.  We were probably heading out to one of our favorite fishing holes like Rome's pond or maybe Tut had a special fishing trip planned for us on Corney or D'Arbonne Bayou.  We would return at the end of the day with a big string of fish and be completely worn out, but a satisfied and happy group of boys who were only faced with the problem of who was going to clean all of those fish!

Some of the best memories that I have of growing up in Unionville are those of the many hours that I spent fishing with my grandfather Tut who taught me all that I needed to know about fishing and life.