TALES FROM THE WEST TEXAS DUST 7/11/2000
"FISHING AROUND THE WORLD" EVENT SPECIAL
Howdy--and for those of ya'll who aren't regular readers around this section of the ranch who just came in for the "FISHING..." event, we heartily welcome ya'll to the Texas stop on your "FISHING AROUND THE WORLD" tour!! Sit down and drop that tackle box and rest a spell from all your weary travels.
First of all, please note the perspective that all of this comes from. I can't swim worth a lick--despite several desperate attempts in my childhood to do so--due to my deep phobia of being anywhere past a certain water to where I can wade in and jump around in and still have my head above water to where I can possibly breathe (partially due to my past major problems with allergies and asthma). Add to the fact that my own mother never really learned how to swim neither. (She was always told by my grandparents, "If you can't swim, don't get near the water." Needless to say, that created a very hard paradox for both her and me to resolve.)
And I haven't been fishing that much in my lifetime either for two reasons--one, my mother could hardly afford to pay her bills, much less be able to go to trips to the lake. (That alone can really put a damper on future desires for lake trips.) And two, I've probably only able to try going fishing about once or twice in my life--one of those times being on Lake Greenbelt around Clarendon, known for its northern pike varieties, in which I went with one of my aunts and uncles who did have a boat. That trip, I definitely say that we TRIED because as far as I know, we sure didn't catch anything. If there's one thing that I'm definitely NOT, it's a fisherman.
However, my granddad sure was when he was alive--if you consider going to piddly little ponds that made it VERY easy to catch catfish fishing. He was SO BIG into it that it didn't matter to him what the rest of the family wanted to do that no matter what happened, come bleep or high water, NOTHING--I repeat, NOTHING could keep him away from that stupid pond when the urge hit him to do what he called "fishing". There were at least several times where either his own health or anyone else's was in danger when this weird itch he had to keep scratching occurred. But that didn't matter to him. No matter what the weather, sun or rain or
