Glory Be! Glory Be!
It’s been said that we older folks may forget where we left our reading glasses or what we ate for breakfast, but we remember our experiences from childhood, especially the formative ones.
This morning a memory surfaced from more than eighty years ago.
In 1944 my father volunteered to play French Horn in the Merchant Marine Band stationed on Catalina Island, about twenty-five miles west of Los Angeles. He rented a small house in Avalon, half a block from the beach.
He and a friend bought a tiny rowboat in which Dad and I often went fishing in the nearby kelp beds. It was a lot of fun.
One day, as we rowed out into the bay to fish we were hailed by the captain of a large sport fishing boat from San Pedro. He said that one of his passengers had hooked a very large fish. The fish was trying to escape by swimming directly into the kelp, where his fishing boat couldn’t follow.
“Can you take my passenger into the kelp in your row boat?” he asked. My dad agreed.
The passenger, a large man, traded places with me (since Dad’s boat was far too small for the three of us). I watched from the deck of the larger boat as he and my Dad followed the fish into the kelp. A half hour later they came rowing back— with a huge fish, the large passenger bellowing for all to hear, “Glory be!!! Glory be!!!
As a reward, the captain gave us several buckets of live bait. But buckets in a rowboat are too easily tipped over, and soon our rowboat was half filled with salt water and wiggling anchovies. It was a fishing trip to remember.
Glory be!!!
Next week I’ll share another (true) fishing tale from my adventures on Catalina Island in 1944. If I continue to remember it.
Alan
P. S. As for my reading glasses, I just found them. On my head, just where they usually are. But I also keep an extra pair in my shirt pocket, and another backup pair … somewhere else.
I love this!!!
I’m confused.. did the buckets tip over and fill the boat with water and anchovies? I’m going to assume so and put in the missing info, but you can fix it if I’m wrong.