Just fishin'

Someone posted a link to this song on their face book page.  I am not a Trace Atkins fan, but something about this song speaks to me.  It's not very deep, I guess, it just reminds me of my days with my dad, when we were "just fishing".  When my mom would be working weekends, and my dad was stuck with me and my brother, lots of summer afternoons were spent fishing.  We would go to Queenston and climb sand dunes all day long.  We would go down to the Whirlpool and build traps with discarded fishing line across the paths.  We would then race my dad, who was carrying everything, up the million steps to the top.  And oh how we would gloat when we would win.  We fished in Grassy Brooks, Chippawa Creek, and a hundred other ponds and streams all over the region.  We got mosquito bit and sunburned.  One of us usually fell in, or came damn close to it.  We would eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches packed from home and stop for Pop Shoppe pop. 

Even as the years passed and Adam really stopped going, me and my dad would still go fishing.  When I was in college and had to build a minnow collection, Dad knew just where to take me to try and catch minnows.  We would go ice fishing in the winter, and freeze.  I would cry when I pulled up mud puppies and would spend much of my time, walking around and trying to subtly kick them back in the ice holes, when the other fishermen would leave them up to die.  We would hit the smelt runs in the spring and the salmon runs in the fall. 

And don't forget, last year, I took him salmon fishing on the lake.  That was a good one. 

So this song makes me remember all of that.  But it makes me think of my little girl too.  My dad has taken Sebastian fishing every summer since he was about 3 years old.  He took Sawyer once last year, but I think he is planning for more this summer.  And honestly, I think I want to take her too.  Both of them. 

We can spend a little time just fishin'.

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "nothing like fishing".