4 COUNTRY MESSENGER
www.countrymessenger.com
APRIL 8, 2015
Let me give you one of my cards
D
id you have a good Easter? Get to spend some time with loved ones? I hope so. Easter is a holiday that is full of the promise of renewal. Coming in early spring, we are just beginning to see the rebirth and renewal of nature, a promise kept after a winter of any length or severity. The secular side of the holiday centers around the family, especially children. Hunting for Easter eggs and getting free candy was a very special treat for me growing up. After Halloween, Easter ranked high for free candy. As the fifth of six children, I enjoyed any candy I could get. My mother simplified the basket process by placing candy on plates at our places around the dinner table. Publisher When I was young, I would often try to get up early to catch a glimpse Tom Stangl of the Easter Bunny. I think some of you did as well. I always envisioned him as a tall white rabbit, much like the title character of the 1950 Jimmy Stewart movie, “Harvey.” Remember the scene where Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, brought home the portrait he commissioned of himself with Harvey, the six foot tall invisible rabbit? Harvey is a pooka, and is actually six foot three. That's how I saw him in my mind's eye. “Harvey,” based on a play of the same name, was a wonderful movie. Funny without being mean or crude, touching and containing just a bit of fantasy. Stewart was nominated for an Academy award for his performance, and the play won a Pulitzer Prize. Jesse White, the original Maytag repairman on TV, played an orderly named White in the insane asylum in the film. After hearing that Stewart was seeing a pooka, he looks the term up in the encyclo: "P O O K A - Pooka - from old Celtic mythology - a fairy spirit in animal form - always very large. The pooka appears here and there - now and then to this one and that one - a benign but mischievous creature - very fond of rumpots, crackpots, and how are you, Mr. Wilson?" "How are you, Mr. Wilson?" Who in the encyclopedia wants to know?” I still laugh every time I see that scene. He even shakes the book. There's a scene in the movie where Stewart, who everyone thinks is a drunk or a crackpot, is explaining his philosophy of life. “Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me,” he said. Faced with giving Dowd a treatment that would make him “normal” but not the same man, his sister decides that she has made a terrible mistake and stops the procedure. It is a sweet, sweet movie, and I think maybe we would all be better off if we adopted a similar philosophy of life. We are far too quick to anger, far too quick to judge, far to quick to criticize what we don't understand. The power of kindness is its simplicity. Some may view it as weakness when, in fact, it is the greatest strength of all. Let's all try to be more pleasant. It certainly can't hurt anything. As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@theameryfreepress. com, telephone 715-268-8101 or write me at P.O. Box 424, Amery, WI, 54001.
Thanks for reading; I’ll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.
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Honest anglers – fact or fiction?
W
e all know anglers are the most honest people on earth. They never lie, exaggerate, spin lines or tell stories. Every angler knows truth from fiction. Why did Jesus pick fishermen to be apostles? It’s obvious: anglers are dedicated, brave; they will never complain about the weather and will fish in stormy weather! Come on … The apostle Peter tried walking on water during a violent storm! Take Brady Boy for example, my 6-year-old kindergartener stepson, who is becoming an avid angler and son I love. His Grandpa Carl gave him tip-up for Christmas and we set that Wild River atip-up with a nice shiner hoping to hook a big pike that Brady could fight Trails and hopefully land. We chose a lake Jim Bennett that has lots of smaller pike so we figured our chance of hooking up Brady with a fish were pretty good. After a few other flags popped off in the distance, Brady’s tip-up flag popped close to where we were taking some pan fish. Josh set the hook and handed the line to Brady who battled the pike and got it onto the ice where he held it and posed for pictures. We broke out the tape measure and got an accurate 21” measurement. No way was Brady going to put that fish back. It had to be taken home, showed off and then eaten. I thought that was the end of the story. Recently we were talking about his BIG PIKE when I realized that he had added an inch to the length. Somehow the fish had grown to 22 inches. I did not correct Brady because I was smiling inside wondering if he had just forgotten the size. After all, he is just a kindergartener or is he becoming a real fisherman? Is
fishing exaggeration a disease that we might need to treat, or is he just a little kid who often turns his d's and b's around and had just forgotten it was 21” and not 22" long? Now that spring is almost here, Brady and I have been talking more about fishing. His dream is to go to the Boundary Waters with me and I just might take him for a couple days. We checked rods and reels and tried to figure out a day that didn’t interfere with his school and my work. So far that mixture hasn’t been cooked up so our trip is still in the planning stages. We also talked about the fishing poster for Brady’s room. The poster lists all the fish around the United States that you can catch in fresh water and salt water: sunfish to snapper, salmon to sailfish, crappie to blue marlin and, of course, northern pike. Brady looked at me and with a straight face said, “We have to get that poster hung up and write down the size of my pike, 25 inches! But we have to write it in pencil because I am going to catch a bigger one this summer!" Then he grabbed a football and ran outside to play before I could get in a word! So you tell me: is this a disease or just something that comes with fishing? His 21” pike caught last winter is now 25 inches long! I talk regularly to a lot of people about fishing and I always believe everything they say, just as certainly as I know they believe me. With the addition of cell phones with high quality cameras this so called anglers' disease might be on the way out. Then a buddy told me he knew a cure . . . Brady should take up golfing instead of fishing, but another friend told me golfers are the biggest liars!
Jim Bennett is an outdoorsman who lives and works in the St. Croix River Valley who can be reached at jamesbennett24@gmail.com.
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