BOB AND ROBERT JOE II
Guess I think of this as handing off the baton. When you teach a child to fish, you are giving him an opportunity to decide if it is to become a hobby (passion) he wishes to continue with as he grows up.
Robbie (as an adult his name was shortened to Rob) always seemed to enjoy the fishing trips. When he caught a fish, he was quite proud of his accomplishment. The picture was taken when he was about eight years old. In addition, he loved to explore the river or lake. I was not crazy about it when he would go up to the dam regulator and sit on the edge, but that was Robbie. When we fished at night with the lantern, Robbie was distracted by what he called the wiggly tales. One summer Rob and Jim visited us in Alma. Please note they were both young men; however, Rob could still not resist putting (or letting) the wiggly tail sit on his shoulder.
Although Jim never adopted fishing as a hobby when he grew up, we did give him the experience when he was young. On one of our trips to the Blue River dam by Milford, Bob and Dad were in the boat cruising on down the river, Mom and I were fishing from the bank, Jim decided to go up closer to the dam spillway to fish. Carp are known to be closer to the bank where the water is not churning quite so much. When this carp took off with his line, he reared back and snagged it. I think the picture reveals he was glad to catch the fish but not excited about having it on his line.
Our daughter Cindy accompanied us on a lot of our fishing trips when she was young. She enjoyed the swimming at both Hickman lake and Pawnee Lake. She made several trips to Alma for fishing in the lake and up the river. In addition Alma had a swimming pool that we enjoyed.
Grandson Robert Joe II was soon nicknamed R2. He would come for a short visit with Bob and I when we lived in Alma. We had a lot activities including going fishing. Luckily, he got to experience catching fish. By now we had the Pontoon boat and R2 enjoyed going out on the boat. When the lake was too choppy, we would fish from land. The big smile on his face says it all. Bob (Grandpa) cleaned the fish.
Our grandson Mike and I had one very special day of fishing. We started our fishing expedition at Pawnee Lake and didn't even get a bite. Mikey wasn't ready to give up even though the weather was beginning to change to possible rain. We headed over for Denton Lake and hit the jackpot. Now, I'm OK at baiting my hook and throwing out my line, but I don't take fish off the hook and I don't clean fish. Mikey handled taking them off the hook, both his and mine. When Bob got home from work, we proudly presented our catch for the day for him to clean. He mumbled something like, "If we are going to go fishing, the least we could do would be learn how to clean them."
MIKEY AND I
