Simpler Times

GOING FISHIN’ AND CATCHIN’ LOVE

By Charles D. Williams, M.D., FACR, FAAP (“Pedro”) When I was a kid, being a kid was hard, but bein’ a good kid was even harder. Time times spent fishin’ with Dad helped Pedro git thru the hard times and to grow up. The simple pleasures that us youngins got from fishin’ down at the creek with Dad were abundant and kept us out of trouble. When you didn’t have a whole lot, it was easier to appreciate some of the finer thangs of life like fishin’ and spendin’ time with the family. Even now when I’m fishin’ with a cane pole, I come closer to the memory of my Dad than at any other moment. Dad realized that life was short and realized what was precious in life. Dad said that fishin’ helped him to relax even though some folks seemed to be the happiest when they were uptight and miserable. For Dad fishin’ and spendin’ time with us youngins seemed to give a meaning to his life. On one of our good gettin’ up mornings, we picked up some grunt worms and gathered our can poles, homemade tackle, and a small fish net which was a lot of little holes tied together. We loaded all this on our truck and our truck was a real truck. It didn’t have the non-essentials like a muffler and windshield wipers. It was a truck that didn’t require washin’ and nobody would steal. On the way to the fishin’ hole, we stopped by Dillard’s and the smell of his pigs almost keeled us over. Pedro asked, “Don’t the smell of all those pigs bother you?” Dillard, who seemed as happy as a pig in a mud puddle replied, “Sometimes, but it just depends on the price of pork.” Millard then asked Dillard if he wanted to join us fishin’. Dillard smiled and said that today he just felt like spendin’ the day with Elizabeth Taylor again. Millard said, “Again?” Dillard replied, “Yeah, I felt like it once before.” We went on to the creek and Dad told Pedro to be real quiet. He told Pedro how deep to fish and where to wet his line. Dad was so smart and Pedro felt so loved and safe. A barefooted boy who was ugly as an empty glass of buttermilk came by and started talkin’ to us. His sinuses were so bad it was hard for him to talk through his nose like the rest of us or either he was from up North. He said that we would do better if we fished with flies. Pedro then told him we were fishin’ with flies. We also had been sittin’ with flies and eatin’ with flies and sometimes even with gnats. As we sat on the banks of the river Dad talked about his life. He said, “Pedro, life is full of uncertainties, I think.” He said that when life gets hard we need to keep our head up, toughen up and hunker down. He told Pedro never to sass Mama, never to point in public, to be good to old folks, and other commandments which he had learned from his Mama who was Baptist and knew ever’thang. So often we didn’t catch fish, but the fishin’ was always good. Many times our lines got caught in the trees and Dad would say, “Ya’ll fishin’ for squirrels? Ya’ll will never catch any fish in those trees.” And we didn’t. More importantly we did catch plenty of love. Thanks to Dad.

Reprinted with author permission from More Simpler Times.

Dr. Williams’ sequel book, More Simpler Times, can be purchased from the Capital Medical Society. All proceeds from the book are donated to the Capital Medical Society Foundation’s We Care Network program. The total sales from his books have raised over $39,000 for the CMS Foundation’s We Care Network.