Lisa Rollins from Ashland sent a story, inspired by the hornpout story a few entries back. She says it’s not a hornpout story, more of a lantern story. Here’s what she wrote:
"About 35 years ago or so, my father Ben Rollins, along with his best buddy Kent Smith Sr. (God rest his soul) and few other buds were out late one night smelt'n. Each man carried his smelt dipp'n net, pail, and lantern. Dad was a pipe smoker too, always smoked George Washington tobacco and on special occasions Half & Half tobacco.
"As they were walking down a path, next to a stream running into Big Squam, each of the men stepped over a very low lying wire fence. This fence was right at the end of a dock they were walking onto waiting for the smelt to "run." As they stepped over the fence they called out to the guy in back of them to "watch out for the fence." Apparently, Dad didn't hear the guy in front of him. He fell ass over teakettle into the drink along with the net, pail, lantern and pipe. He went straight to the bottom, then popped back up like cork with the net, pail, and lantern in his hands. The lantern was still lit and his pipe was still clenched between his teeth!
"After getting him out of the drink, the boys rushed him home for a change of clothes and a couple a shots (whiskey). Later they went back to the smelt'n spot, scooped up a nice mess of smelts, and brought 'em home. Ain't nothing tastes much better than freshly caught smelts about 1 o'clock in the morning.
"I did an awful lot of fishing over the years with my parents. I'm sure my dad has some great hornpout'n stories. Your blog jogged my memory, the smelt story is just one I happened to remember. Thanks for that!
"You keep writing and I'll keep reading.
"P.S. Do you know about all the robins around this winter? What's up with that? We've seen tons of them up here mostly drunk on the fermented crab apples "
I thought I saw a robin on my holly bush during a snowstorm last week. Chalked it up to a case of mistaken identity. But if Lisa’s seeing robins too, maybe I did see a robin. In the Pawtuckaway Forum there’s an article about bluebirds still hanging out when they should be long gone south. What is up with that. Birders?
I was surprised to see a robin outside my house recently, too. Not long afterwards, I read a birding column in the Boston Globe. It seems that the robins we're seeing have actually come down south from Canada. (I guess they think it's an improvement here!) "Our" birds have gone down south to the Carolinas, Florida, etc.
Posted by: Judy Joy | February 04, 2009 at 09:01 AM
That's good to know, Judy. I thought I detected a Canandian accent.
Becky
Posted by: rebecca Rule | February 06, 2009 at 12:29 PM