Lil Brother
New member
While Christmas is only a few weeks away, I remembered a story yesterday and decided to write this one down before I forgot it.
The time was in the late 80's or early 90's and the place was at my Mother's house. Linda lived in the old homeplace and next to her was my Mother's mobile home. My brother and I had both seemed to fall a bit on hard times and were both living with Mom. John was going through a hard divorce from his first wife and was trying to keep his job in Pine Bluff, Arkansas some fifty miles away. He would get up very early in the morning to work his part time job at UPS while I had a part time job waiting tables at the local VFW club on weekends.
John and I were both pretty down on our luck at the time, but he managed to put his oldest daughter through college with his job. I was just trying to survive the times. I had gotten my butt in a crack and didn't have a car. As a matter of fact, I didn't even have a drivers liscense. For whatever reason, we were both there and Mother was taking care of us. Another story another time....
We both had a lot of time on our hands due to our employment status so we decided to fish while we could. That's just what we did too friends and it all started one night when I borrowed John's ten speed bicycle, strapped my rod and reel to itand peddled off to Lake Pauline a few blocks away. I hadn't fished there since I was a kid, but I knew where to go. I parked the bicycle on the dam and walked along casting a "june-bug" plastic worm. That night I came in after 12 am and awoke John with an excitment in my voice. I had on the stringer a largemouth bass that weighed in the neighborhood of 5 pounds. I put him in the ice chest and waited til in the morning to clean him.
The next morning I cleaned the fish and put all the guts, fins, head into a plastic garbage bag. I didn't dare throw it in the trash because I knew it would stink to the high heavens in no time flat. Well, I thought that since the Fullingtons had give my brother a hard time when he ALLEDGEDLEY shot their dog years ago; I would just tie this garbage bag to one of their trees across the fence in the middle of their pasture. I didn't realize it at the time, but this set the presadence for months to come.
I fished every waking moment just to escape my miserable little life that I was living. Most of the time I went with John whenever and wherever we could, but if not it was back to good old Lake Pauline. We put guts in clear plastic gallon size baggies and referred to the tree we put them in as the "fish tree". Even Mother and Linda even became sort of fond of it
Well, maybe not fond of it, but everyone knew that we were on a mission to finish decorating that old
ironwood tree. I wish we had taken a picture of it. It was beautiful! John and I always kidded about it saying to ourselves that if we were still half as mean as we were when we were boys, that we would throw it in someone's car after a few weeks. We were only kidding, but don't cha know a person could never get that smell out if we did.
Eventually John and I did get ourselves together and moved out, but it was sure fun while it lasted! At one time there as probably at least 50 different baggies hanging from that tree. Those were the good old days folks and if I ever blow the dust off of my bass boat and start going again, I may just start my OWN fish tree across the fence on Mr. Cathcarts land!
Thanks for coming and sorry so long and if you need help decorating YOUR tree, just ask.
Lil Brother
The time was in the late 80's or early 90's and the place was at my Mother's house. Linda lived in the old homeplace and next to her was my Mother's mobile home. My brother and I had both seemed to fall a bit on hard times and were both living with Mom. John was going through a hard divorce from his first wife and was trying to keep his job in Pine Bluff, Arkansas some fifty miles away. He would get up very early in the morning to work his part time job at UPS while I had a part time job waiting tables at the local VFW club on weekends.
John and I were both pretty down on our luck at the time, but he managed to put his oldest daughter through college with his job. I was just trying to survive the times. I had gotten my butt in a crack and didn't have a car. As a matter of fact, I didn't even have a drivers liscense. For whatever reason, we were both there and Mother was taking care of us. Another story another time....
We both had a lot of time on our hands due to our employment status so we decided to fish while we could. That's just what we did too friends and it all started one night when I borrowed John's ten speed bicycle, strapped my rod and reel to itand peddled off to Lake Pauline a few blocks away. I hadn't fished there since I was a kid, but I knew where to go. I parked the bicycle on the dam and walked along casting a "june-bug" plastic worm. That night I came in after 12 am and awoke John with an excitment in my voice. I had on the stringer a largemouth bass that weighed in the neighborhood of 5 pounds. I put him in the ice chest and waited til in the morning to clean him.
The next morning I cleaned the fish and put all the guts, fins, head into a plastic garbage bag. I didn't dare throw it in the trash because I knew it would stink to the high heavens in no time flat. Well, I thought that since the Fullingtons had give my brother a hard time when he ALLEDGEDLEY shot their dog years ago; I would just tie this garbage bag to one of their trees across the fence in the middle of their pasture. I didn't realize it at the time, but this set the presadence for months to come.
I fished every waking moment just to escape my miserable little life that I was living. Most of the time I went with John whenever and wherever we could, but if not it was back to good old Lake Pauline. We put guts in clear plastic gallon size baggies and referred to the tree we put them in as the "fish tree". Even Mother and Linda even became sort of fond of it
Well, maybe not fond of it, but everyone knew that we were on a mission to finish decorating that oldironwood tree. I wish we had taken a picture of it. It was beautiful! John and I always kidded about it saying to ourselves that if we were still half as mean as we were when we were boys, that we would throw it in someone's car after a few weeks. We were only kidding, but don't cha know a person could never get that smell out if we did.
Eventually John and I did get ourselves together and moved out, but it was sure fun while it lasted! At one time there as probably at least 50 different baggies hanging from that tree. Those were the good old days folks and if I ever blow the dust off of my bass boat and start going again, I may just start my OWN fish tree across the fence on Mr. Cathcarts land!
Thanks for coming and sorry so long and if you need help decorating YOUR tree, just ask.Lil Brother
