Growin up i couldn't tell how poor we really were. I pretty much had everything i could have wanted. I mean, we even had a bass boat to fish out of. it was a metal jon boat that was painted a bright yellow color. I guess the previous owner was afraid he might lose it! anyways, it was a great boat. It did have a few cracks in the bottom that had fiberglass resin put on em real thick so they wouldn't leak. they still leaked though, so we always kept a jug to bail the water out. Me and my Dad would load that sucker up in the back of the pick up truck and head for the nearest mine pit we could find. Most of the time we would have to sneak it over a fence or two but back then nobody would give us crap about being there. great times.
One summer we decided to head to a local pit to fish. It had a real long steep bank that we had to slide the boat down. The front of the pit was small but open water. The middle of the pit was full of cattails that were real thick. We used a machete to cut a halfway decent path through them to the back of the pit that was big and open with some of the best fishing around. Now these pits were dug with a huge crane so the banks were like mountains that kept you from seeing the horizon or an approaching storm. We were too caught up in fishin to notice the dark clouds coming up and before we knew it it started to rain. It quickly began to come a storm of storms and dad decided we better head for the nearest bank to wait it out. As the boat quickly filled with water from the flood, and lack of bailing, we made it to the bank. Me, Dad and the dog hunkered down under the nearest little tree there was. I was scared to death and Im sure Dad had to be but he sure didn't show it. Lightning began to flash and boom all around us while the wind and rain got even harder. I was sure that we were going to be struck by lightning and it must just be our time to go. Fear does weird things to people I guess because all of a sudden we began to laugh. The laughter suddenly got louder and more constant with every bolt of lightning and wind gust. I quickly found myself scared to death, freezing and, in a weird way, having one of the best fishing days I could imagine.
After several hours the wind and rain began to let up. We bailed out the water and headed for the truck. It was beginning to get dark and even though the lightning didn't kill us we were both pretty sure Mom would kill dad for having me out in such a storm! Heck we figured she might kill me too just for letting dad put us in harms way. The thought of that started the laughter all over again and we laughed all the way home.
ps.....Mom was fine with it and expected no less from to two of us!!
