I'm getting softer, as I grow older.
Something happened today that needs to be told. I'll do my best to give this story substance, not sure I can.
I was in a new store this afternoon near Waco, Tx, one that isn't even open yet, finishing up our product set. As sometimes occurs, a customer walked in the front door. This person happened to be an elderly gentleman. One of the gals explained to him that the store wasn't open yet. I heard him say that he understood, but that he wondered if maybe someone could give him some directions, as he was lost. I turned around to look, and at the same time, three associates all pointed at me and said, "he can help you!"
I walked over, so that he didn't have to cross the store to me. I asked where he was going, and he said Dallas. Dallas is a BIG place, so I prodded him for a more exact location so that I could get him to where he wanted to go. He told me that he was actually headed to Rowlett. I told him not to worry, I knew where that was and could get him directions. I asked if instead of telling him, if he would like me to write it down. He said, "Young man, that would be wonderful! I don't remember as well as I used to". I smiled, mostly because of his gentle nature and genuine honesty. I know we'll all get to where he thinks he is someday.
As I was giving him the directions, and carefully writing them down so he could follow them, he was telling me that he was from Corpus Christi, Texas. I figured he was doing some Holiday traveling, but just for small talk, I asked him why he was headed to Rowlett.
What happened next was truly amazing!
He said, "Well, that's kind of a long story". He then reached into his pocket, took out his wallet and opened it up to a picture. It was a couple, obviously taken many years ago, but very well cared for considering its age. "You see this picture", he asked. I nodded. "This was taken in 1947, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I had just finished basic training from the Navy, and was there visiting a friend".
"That's you?", I asked.
"Yes, that's me, and a young lady that I was introduced to. We spent a couple days together, and then I went back to the Navy and spent 20 years there and retired. We went our separate ways, she married another guy, I married another woman, we raised families and never saw each other again."
I knew there was more.
He went on to explain that a couple weeks ago, he found her on Facebook through a mutual friend. Once they connected, she came down to Corpus Christi to see him. Now, he was taking her to Rowlett so she could spend Christmas with her daughter and her family.
I was speechless. What a wonderful story. For two people, to find each other, after all that time, and reconnect, was, well...............pretty special.
I went over the directions with him one final time, just to make sure this elderly prince would be able to deliver his princess to the designated place. We gently shook hands, and as I watched him walk away, I couldn't help but have a tear in my eye. My gaze followed him to his car, I guess just to make sure he got there. One of the gals in the store came up to me and asked if I was okay? I looked her, and really couldn't talk. The other two joined us and wanted to know what happened, so, I very quickly told them the story. And then I realized, I wanted to meet her too!
I headed for the door, just as he was backing out. I waved him down, and realized, all three girls had followed me out of the store as well! I apologized for stopping him, but said, "I just want to meet the young lady that you told me about". I went around to the other side of the car, the girls all talked to him, while I introduced myself to her. I asked if she was going to be able to read my writing and be his navigator, she said she was. I took her by the hand and told her that he had told me the story of how they met and then reconnected, and I told her that it wouldn't have been complete to have not met her as well. She thanked me, for being so kind, writing down the directions and then said, "we got together after 67 years and it was like we had never left each other".
I said, "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you"?
She said, "I'm 84. He's 86". I could see the care in her face, and hear it in her voice. They were both giddy. I smiled again and wished them both a Merry Christmas.
As I watched them drive away. I realized they probably had exactly what they wanted for this Holiday Season. My only regret was not getting their names, otherwise, it was a very cute and heartfelt love story.
As I drove the two hours home, I had two thoughts: The first was that I hoped my directions got them to where they needed to go. The second was that, I too, have exactly what I want this Holiday Season, and I didn't have to wait 67 years to find it.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sometimes, one bite matters!
Haven't blogged in a while, since just before our move from Iowa to Texas. Been busy with a lot of things. Initially, it was looking for work and hanging with the grand kids. Then it was putting a lot of effort in the new job (still am and love it) and hanging with the grandkids. Now I'm adding an old, yet new, twist to my spare time; I've joined the Denton County Bass Club and it's tournament season in Texas.
Reality is, it never ends. There are tournaments 12 months of the year! If I wanted to, I'm sure I could find one. Unlike in Iowa, where the ice is still 14-24" thick and ice fishing is in full swing, the weather here is like early spring. Windy, still cold at night, warmer during the day, but, can change at a moments notice. Still no spring storms, matter of fact, we need some rain so those would be welcome. The lakes are low and the boat ramps lower in many places. With water down in all but a few locations, it creates conditions that many Texas boys haven't even seen and puts this Northern boy of a bit more level ground!
Denton County Bass had their first tournament last weekend. It was on a warm water lake called Brandy Branch, which is near Longview and Marshall, TX, about three hours from home. Got over there on Saturday for a few hours, long enough to determine that the water temps ranged from 52-69 degrees. Fish were in all three stages: Pre-spawn, spawn and Post-spawn. There were quite a few beds, but no sun. Shallow beds were empty....so I thought. Deep beds, those in 10-15 foot of water, could be seen, but couldn't see anything on them without any sun. There was a lot of grass in the lake. Explored both sides of the lake in the little time I had to poke around. Decided that the warm water side was where I was going to spend the majority of my time. Went right to the egg beater and started throwing Hot Rod Baits senkos looking for fish on those beds I could see, but still wasn't seeing any fish. They were there though and the first two keepers came early! By 8am, had the third, the fourth came about 10 minutes later. In the next hour and a half, I had four more bites, but didn't get that fifth keeper until 10:30am. Five in the box, 5x3, we all want it, we all look for it, and there is a sense of relief when the fifth one hits the deck. Now it was time to go after upgrades. Fished hard for the next four and a half hours, but could only bring in short fish. Just couldn't get that one bite that mattered.
Time for the weigh in: I was a little nervous. Had five, but there were small, and I knew it. There are some pretty good sticks in this club, one of them is a past state champion! My co-angler had one super nice 5lb fish, I let him go take the bag and go first. When he came back, I loaded my fish and took them to the scale. They were all Kentucky Spots, and I knew 10lbs was a stretch, but was happy to have the five I had. Tale of the tape: 8.88 lbs. Now just had to wait. There were some pretty nice bags weighed and the winner had nearly 17lbs. weights dropped to 14, 13, 11 and 10 and then me. Sixth. Not bad, not good, I'll definitely take it. This year will be a big learning experience for me back on lakes, and in territory I've never seen. It will take all my knowledge of early tournament days in order to put five in the boat every tournament, but, we are gonna give it a shot. Good start, just have to keep it going.
A co-worker of mine, Ray Sims, is a seasoned tournament angler, having fished tournaments in Texas and Tennessee and other parts of the country for over 40 years. He needed a partner for this weekend and I wasn't going to tell him no. This was an extra opportunity for me to learn something about another lake that I wasn't going to have on my Denton County schedule this year. Saturday came quickly. The weather had improved temp wise from the previous weekend, but we were only a couple days in to an upper 50's weather cycle, meaning, the water we were fishing was still super cold. Matter of fact, Ray went out Friday afternoon for a while and called to tell me he had never seen water this cold in Texas. He was dumbfounded after not having one bite in four hours. He told me it was going to be tough and I knew he was right.
We showed up Saturday morning, launched and took a 10 minute drive down the lake. Man, it was damn cold. 38 degrees, on plane on a bass boat, the fingers and face were feeling it. We hit the first spot and started pitching rocks, nothing. Started cranking...nothing. Started throwing a slow rolled spinner bait a little deeper...nothing. Threw the jerk bait, then a beaver, then a senko.....nothing. Moved to the second spot. Rinsed and repeated. Nothing. Moved on to a third and fourth spot. Nothing. Neither of us had gotten a bite. Got to the fifth location further up the lake, water was a bit shallower and was warming in the sun, all the way up to 45 degrees. Grabbed a chatterbait and started tossing to another bunch of rocks. Three casts in, fish on! Finally! Was a short battle and Ray expertly worked the net. Looked to be about 2.2-2.3 lbs. One in the live well. It was almost 11am.
Ray was pretty happy, I wanted four more. He kept telling me that if it was this hard for us, everyone was having trouble. While I agreed, I still didn't think one fish was going to get us a check. Ray thought differently. I was certain that someone was on fish and we would see some nice bags at the weigh in. We fished hard till 2:30, and headed for the marina. We got the boat out, and all I heard was fisherman complaining. Ray took a walk while I was getting stuff put away and came back telling me he thought our one fish was going to cash. I shook my head, asked him for a weigh bag and got our fish ready for the scale. When I walked up, there were maybe 20 guys standing around and only two of us had bags in our hands. I knew that there were still teams trying to get out of the water as there were 32 boats/64 fishermen in the Forney Bass Club Tournament this day.
I looked at the guy standing there with his bag and he looked at me and said, you first. I didn't waste any time and put that one fish on the scale. I guessed 2.26. Total weight was actually 2.32. I took my fish and went to release him. When I got back, I learned that the guy that weighed in second had two small fish for something like 3.78 and neither fish went 2 lbs. Another guy came up, weighed one fish in at 2.21 lbs. There was some conversation about one more bag, so we waited and that guy came up with his bag and I still expected a five fish limit. It wasn't to be today.....he pulled one fish out that weighed 1.84 lbs. That was it. My one bite mattered a ton today. Was good for second place and we won big fish. Just a head shaker. Oh well. Reminded me a lot of a couple early season Hot Rod Baits tournaments last season with Brent Roloff. Those were brutal, from both a fishing and weather standpoint.
To all my Northern Fishing friends, live vicariously through me for a couple more months. Your day will be here soon enough boys, soon enough.....and just remember; Sometimes, one bite matters!
Reality is, it never ends. There are tournaments 12 months of the year! If I wanted to, I'm sure I could find one. Unlike in Iowa, where the ice is still 14-24" thick and ice fishing is in full swing, the weather here is like early spring. Windy, still cold at night, warmer during the day, but, can change at a moments notice. Still no spring storms, matter of fact, we need some rain so those would be welcome. The lakes are low and the boat ramps lower in many places. With water down in all but a few locations, it creates conditions that many Texas boys haven't even seen and puts this Northern boy of a bit more level ground!
Denton County Bass had their first tournament last weekend. It was on a warm water lake called Brandy Branch, which is near Longview and Marshall, TX, about three hours from home. Got over there on Saturday for a few hours, long enough to determine that the water temps ranged from 52-69 degrees. Fish were in all three stages: Pre-spawn, spawn and Post-spawn. There were quite a few beds, but no sun. Shallow beds were empty....so I thought. Deep beds, those in 10-15 foot of water, could be seen, but couldn't see anything on them without any sun. There was a lot of grass in the lake. Explored both sides of the lake in the little time I had to poke around. Decided that the warm water side was where I was going to spend the majority of my time. Went right to the egg beater and started throwing Hot Rod Baits senkos looking for fish on those beds I could see, but still wasn't seeing any fish. They were there though and the first two keepers came early! By 8am, had the third, the fourth came about 10 minutes later. In the next hour and a half, I had four more bites, but didn't get that fifth keeper until 10:30am. Five in the box, 5x3, we all want it, we all look for it, and there is a sense of relief when the fifth one hits the deck. Now it was time to go after upgrades. Fished hard for the next four and a half hours, but could only bring in short fish. Just couldn't get that one bite that mattered.
Time for the weigh in: I was a little nervous. Had five, but there were small, and I knew it. There are some pretty good sticks in this club, one of them is a past state champion! My co-angler had one super nice 5lb fish, I let him go take the bag and go first. When he came back, I loaded my fish and took them to the scale. They were all Kentucky Spots, and I knew 10lbs was a stretch, but was happy to have the five I had. Tale of the tape: 8.88 lbs. Now just had to wait. There were some pretty nice bags weighed and the winner had nearly 17lbs. weights dropped to 14, 13, 11 and 10 and then me. Sixth. Not bad, not good, I'll definitely take it. This year will be a big learning experience for me back on lakes, and in territory I've never seen. It will take all my knowledge of early tournament days in order to put five in the boat every tournament, but, we are gonna give it a shot. Good start, just have to keep it going.
A co-worker of mine, Ray Sims, is a seasoned tournament angler, having fished tournaments in Texas and Tennessee and other parts of the country for over 40 years. He needed a partner for this weekend and I wasn't going to tell him no. This was an extra opportunity for me to learn something about another lake that I wasn't going to have on my Denton County schedule this year. Saturday came quickly. The weather had improved temp wise from the previous weekend, but we were only a couple days in to an upper 50's weather cycle, meaning, the water we were fishing was still super cold. Matter of fact, Ray went out Friday afternoon for a while and called to tell me he had never seen water this cold in Texas. He was dumbfounded after not having one bite in four hours. He told me it was going to be tough and I knew he was right.
We showed up Saturday morning, launched and took a 10 minute drive down the lake. Man, it was damn cold. 38 degrees, on plane on a bass boat, the fingers and face were feeling it. We hit the first spot and started pitching rocks, nothing. Started cranking...nothing. Started throwing a slow rolled spinner bait a little deeper...nothing. Threw the jerk bait, then a beaver, then a senko.....nothing. Moved to the second spot. Rinsed and repeated. Nothing. Moved on to a third and fourth spot. Nothing. Neither of us had gotten a bite. Got to the fifth location further up the lake, water was a bit shallower and was warming in the sun, all the way up to 45 degrees. Grabbed a chatterbait and started tossing to another bunch of rocks. Three casts in, fish on! Finally! Was a short battle and Ray expertly worked the net. Looked to be about 2.2-2.3 lbs. One in the live well. It was almost 11am.
Ray was pretty happy, I wanted four more. He kept telling me that if it was this hard for us, everyone was having trouble. While I agreed, I still didn't think one fish was going to get us a check. Ray thought differently. I was certain that someone was on fish and we would see some nice bags at the weigh in. We fished hard till 2:30, and headed for the marina. We got the boat out, and all I heard was fisherman complaining. Ray took a walk while I was getting stuff put away and came back telling me he thought our one fish was going to cash. I shook my head, asked him for a weigh bag and got our fish ready for the scale. When I walked up, there were maybe 20 guys standing around and only two of us had bags in our hands. I knew that there were still teams trying to get out of the water as there were 32 boats/64 fishermen in the Forney Bass Club Tournament this day.
I looked at the guy standing there with his bag and he looked at me and said, you first. I didn't waste any time and put that one fish on the scale. I guessed 2.26. Total weight was actually 2.32. I took my fish and went to release him. When I got back, I learned that the guy that weighed in second had two small fish for something like 3.78 and neither fish went 2 lbs. Another guy came up, weighed one fish in at 2.21 lbs. There was some conversation about one more bag, so we waited and that guy came up with his bag and I still expected a five fish limit. It wasn't to be today.....he pulled one fish out that weighed 1.84 lbs. That was it. My one bite mattered a ton today. Was good for second place and we won big fish. Just a head shaker. Oh well. Reminded me a lot of a couple early season Hot Rod Baits tournaments last season with Brent Roloff. Those were brutal, from both a fishing and weather standpoint.
To all my Northern Fishing friends, live vicariously through me for a couple more months. Your day will be here soon enough boys, soon enough.....and just remember; Sometimes, one bite matters!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)