Fishing

We were friends with our back yard neighbors. It was pretty amazing the family that lived behind us had a daughter that was the same age as my older sister and a son that was my age among other children over there. The funny thing was that our front yard neighbors, the ones that lived across the street, also had a daughter the same age as my older sister and a son my age. What was even more amazing is that at one point in time while living in this house their were seven children at our house, seven at the back yard neighbors house and seven at the house across the street. The neighbors in the back yard's dad was blind. He had lost his sight when he was nineteen or twenty. He was cleaning a sink out with very strong chemicals when it splashed back into his eyes. Over the next twenty four hours the chemical ate his eyes. When I first met him I was a little scared. My friend warned me that I had to introduce myself when I came in so he knew that I was there. My Friends dad had a system for everything. When he had cash he folded corners a certain way so he knew what denomination they were. Whenever he handed money to his kids he would put a bill in their hand and they would repeat what the denomination was back to him. He ran a sausage stand at the local rodeo and while his kids and I helped him he would accept people's money with ease and trust that what they handed him was correct. One of his favorite things to do was fish. He would go as often as he could. We knew when he wanted to go fishing because he would have us digging for worms in the back yard. He eventually set up a small electric fence type system. One would put these spikes in the ground that were all wired together and then plug it in and wait. For some reason the electricity that was being sent into the ground irritated the earthworms and they would come to the surface. We would collect the worms into cups with dirt already in it. Once we had thirty or forty we would know we could go. My friends dad could string a line tie on a hook and bait it faster than we with eyes could. His oldest son would drive us up the canyon with us bouncing around in the back of a huge van with all of our tackle. Once we arrived their dad would set up a chair get his poll ready and cast it into the lake. He could not see his bobber. He could not see our lines also in the water and yet he cast better than all of us. Once the line was set he put one finger on the line and waited. Maybe he was more patient than us. Maybe he was just a better fisherman than us. I don't really know which but he caught more fish than all of us.