12/31/1969...What were you doing?

[Devils Horse]

At 12 years old, I was secretly carrying around a picture of a 'hottie' I cut out of one of my mother's 'True Story' ragazines.

Jake Robinson, a crotchety old dude who lived about 1/2 mile away shot my bird dog with a 22 rifle the November just before that date. Shot went right thru the fleshy part of his neck and didn't hurt him much, but it was close. Knew it was him because he always complained my dog was chasing his chickens and he was always shooting at something up there. When I knocked on his door and asked him if he shot my dog, he cussed me out and ran me off. "I didn't shoot your $%#& dog boy, and you wouldn't do nothin' if I did."

Hunting season of 1970, I put a punkin ball in one of his prized cow's head with my .410 shotgun. My folks hauled me to the door as he stood on the porch raving and mad as I've ever seen anyone. "No sir, it wasn't me that shot your cow." My stepdad had to make him leave, I thought his head was going to explode. Years later I confessed to mama. She hardly needed a confession, she knew I'd done it all along. She knew all about them girlie pictures too.

I owned 2 lures, A Rapala Finnish Minnow, and a Mepps Comet. The explosions on that ole Rapala as I twitched it along the top was what hooked me for life on bass fishing. My favorite hole was a private lake about a 3 mile walk thru the woods. I'd take off in the morning with nothing but my Zebco 202 (upgraded later to a Johnson Century) and my tackle box. There were plenty of apple and wild plum trees for food, plus I'd raid ole man Robinson's Scuppernong bush often as not.

Later that spring I swam the watershed lake I grew up on across and back after my buddy said I couldn't do it. Me and him ran a trot line a few days after that and had 30 pounds of dressed catfish.

I can almost feel that ole hot Alabama sun now, wish I could do it all over again!

[stratosjoe]

I was 19 doing the men in green thing wishing I was anywhere else in the universe with a decent meal and a shower