Remembering

So I was remembering my childhood and thinking back to when I fished as a kid.


We lived in Cuba, NY until I was 8 when we moved more eastern and upstate to where I now call home. Cuba is a tiny town where pretty much everyone knows everyone, and had a fairly large body of water called... what else? Cuba lake. It being a small town, pretty much everyone knew someone that had property on the Lake and we were no exception. My baby sitter - Donna and her Husband Alan owned a house on the lake, with its own dock and private small beach area. Great little spot.


I remember being all of about 4, maybe 5, and my mom giving me a fishing pole. It was a funky little thing - one of those that you see on TV. It was black, made of plastic, telescoped, and had a push button reel loaded with some type of mono filament. It had an orange band around the reel casing but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of it otherwise I'd post a photo. I think it got lost in the move or broken somewhere along the way.

Anyway, I had a hell of a time trying to cast this little rod. I wasn't exactly a born angler, thats for sure. I could drop it in the water and catch little sunfish and stuff right off the dock but the "big boys" (Donna's sons, the youngest of which was 8 or 10 years older than me) told me there was big bass not far from the dock. My mom - being awesome as she was - took the pole and put a new hook and lure on it. She said she'd cast it out for me to where the older guys said to and then she'd help me since for sure it was going to be a huge fish.

She took the rod, pushed the button in, and proceeded to throw the entire thing right to where the big Bass lay. Of course it didn't catch any fish, or if it did, we didn't know since the pole was in the water. One of the guys dove in and saved it so I didn't lose my shiny new fishing pole but my mom was sure embarrassed. In her natural way she laughed at it and everyone had a good time.


It's been three years to the day since my mom died. It has gotten easier - the holidays are still hard but my wife and I continue to make memories of our own without forgetting those lost. I'm blessed to have a great and large family to turn to when I need to, but everyone still wishes Wendy, or Windy, or Windriff, or whatever you wanted to call her, was around.

I went fishing today and it just wasn't the same as that day on the dock when I almost lost my pole and my mom got a little red in the face.


We miss you and always will.