We were barely teens in a small town that was off the beaten path when we rode our bikes out to the creek to go fishing.
We rode our bikes a lot on those narrow gravel roads and I don’t remember seeing hardly any motorized vehicles along the way like it was in town or on the highways.
It was dark enough that we used flashlights to see where we were going.
We found a place where the ground was soft enough that it turned slightly muddy when we stomped it.
The nightcrawlers that came out of the ground glowed in the dark.
Our hands glowed when we shut off the lights. There must have been something phosphorescent in that soil.
We found a deeper place at the bend of the creek where we could fish off of a rock ledge.
I put a gob of glowing worm on a hook and dropped my line down into the water.
Wasn’t long before I had a bite and I set the hook into a catfish.
Guys held the lights while I fought the fish with a little rod and spinning reel.
I got the cat up to the surface and as I tried to lift it up the two and a half feet onto the ledge the line broke.
We talked about how big it was and we figured out that I should have walked it down to where the bank was lower.
That was the first big fish any of us had ever caught and it was a learning experience.
We must have got busy doing other things after that because I don’t remember going back to try to catch that fish again.
You didn’t have to worry about people bothering you in those days if you rode your bike out of town late in the evening.
I wish things had never changed to where kids just can’t do that anymore.
The sights and sounds and smells and everything just filled up your senses.
We rode our bikes a lot on those narrow gravel roads and I don’t remember seeing hardly any motorized vehicles along the way like it was in town or on the highways.
It was dark enough that we used flashlights to see where we were going.
We found a place where the ground was soft enough that it turned slightly muddy when we stomped it.
The nightcrawlers that came out of the ground glowed in the dark.
Our hands glowed when we shut off the lights. There must have been something phosphorescent in that soil.
We found a deeper place at the bend of the creek where we could fish off of a rock ledge.
I put a gob of glowing worm on a hook and dropped my line down into the water.
Wasn’t long before I had a bite and I set the hook into a catfish.
Guys held the lights while I fought the fish with a little rod and spinning reel.
I got the cat up to the surface and as I tried to lift it up the two and a half feet onto the ledge the line broke.
We talked about how big it was and we figured out that I should have walked it down to where the bank was lower.
That was the first big fish any of us had ever caught and it was a learning experience.
We must have got busy doing other things after that because I don’t remember going back to try to catch that fish again.
You didn’t have to worry about people bothering you in those days if you rode your bike out of town late in the evening.
I wish things had never changed to where kids just can’t do that anymore.
The sights and sounds and smells and everything just filled up your senses.
