Hold my Pole Well, ain't this a lively bunch now. Too pretty a weekend I reckon to be posting.......was down in the old stomp grounds today for Decoration. Felt the pull to head up towards Lake O' the Cherokees to one of our favorite little camp grounds. Found the nieces and family had pitched camp up there and settled in with them for the afternoon and evening. Got plumb tickled at the 10 year old's determination to catch a spoonbill. I do believe a good sized spoonbill could swallow the little waif but she was set on catching one. Sat on the bank and watched her and her father for an hour or so......he casting the line out for her and then letting her reel it in. All of a sudden her pole jerked, and the fight was on. The water from the opened flood gates of the dam and the determination of whatever she had hooked to free itself pulled her first downstream on the bank and then upstream, back and forth, pole bending up and down with the dives and thrusts of the behemoth that she was in battle with. Her dad ran up to help her, but she fought him off......she was gonna do this by herself! However, when she actually got pulled into the first feet of water from the bank, she was forced to allow a little help. Her eyes were wide with both fright and exhilaration as her catch was reeled in bit by bit. "Hold my pole, Daddy!" she yelled as she ran to grab something to scoop the fish in with........ Her father just laughed as he knew what she had on the line wouldn't fit in whatever she planned to scoop it up with. By then, she had gathered quite a little crowd, including the game warden, and her daddy gave her back the pole just as the water began to splash from the reeled in fish. She was grinning ear to ear. I had gotten out of my seat to stand up next to her and see what she had.......a Buffalo maybe? Flat head? Channel cat? Maybe it was a Spoonbill? With one great tug, and a little extra help from her dad, the behemoth was yanked from the water......... All I saw, was teeth, and a large green on green fin thrashing in the air! GAR!!! When the little one saw those teeth heading up towards her nose, she forgot all about the pole, and her exhilaration, and was trying to run up the muddy bank so fast, she looked like the tazmanian devil in those cartoons as her legs were going ninety-to-nothing but she wasn't getting anywheres......... She was running so hard and throwing so much mud behind her you would've thought she was running as the favorite in today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. By then, everyone had sort of taken a few steps back from the angry dinosaur she had hooked as it was gasping for air and again, all you could see was all those teeth flashing....... The game warden had the presence of mind to cut the line and allow the beast to slide down the slope back into the depths of the fast running water......Like the Loch Ness monster returning to the deep.......a last flip of it's tail fin, and it was gone. The ten year old was up a tree and had to be coaxed down by her mother, yes, it's gone now, and yes, you can come down out of that cottonwood. Later, at the camp-fire, enjoying just-fried chicken as no one caught anything worth keeping, the story was retold again and again, about the ten year old's epic battle and the comedy of it all.......she was a good sport, and took all the ribbing in good spirits. Later, she sidled up to Uncle Wauhilau......poked me in the ribs, and with a smile and a wink, just between us, she whispered, "Yeah, but I caught that sucker, didn't I?" "Yep, you sure did," I answered while pinching her cheek, "You most surely did." And you all, shame on you........."Hold my Pole" is a fish tale......tsk tsk. |
"Hold my Pole" © Wauhilau as posted in
alt.discuss.clubs.public.culture.native-american.benable
on Sat, May 20, 2006, 9:21pm (EDT-3)
bead bar courtesy of Greasy Grass