Back in my college days, there were about twenty of us guys and gals that hung out together. We would all meet at Dummy, Ralph and Junior's house after class or work and decide what we were going to do for the day, evening or night! One big decision was dinner. Sometimes we would all go out and other times we would all fix something and bring it over...like potluck.
We all went to concerts together, watched Chiefs football together back when they stunk themselves out of Kansas City, and we always went to the lake together. My old boyfriend, Sam, had a 29' travel trailer that he pulled to jobs because he was a Union pipefitter. I couldn't leave out the "Union" part because back then I wasn't allowed to purchase things that were not American-made and certainly couldn't associate with any "Scabs"!! LOL Going to the lake on the weekends was great fun. We would ski and fish throughout the daytime hours, sit around the campfire during the nighttime hours and come bedtime everyone would pile in the travel trailer to sleep, sleep in our cars or trucks, sleep around the campfire or bring tents of their own and sleep in them. We bled the lake life on the weekends!
We took part in many activities together, way too many to mention. One of many memorable moments was when we got to go froggin' and catfishing. Why? Because I was the queen at froggin' and catfishing! Ralph and Junior had Jon boats and Sam had a Water Scamp. We would go fishing quite often during the day, but catfishing and froggin' only took place at night. It is funny to think back because anytime anyone wanted to go do something such as froggin' or catfishing, you just said the word and boom...everyone had the gear thrown in the vehicles and we were headed to the pits! There was none of this "take several hours" to get ready stuff...ten minutes or less and we were in the vehicles headed to the "honey" spot!
You know how there's the Gunnery Sergeant of the Marines? Well, I was the "Gunny" Sargeant of the Pits! I didn't get to steer the trolling motor nor did I get to use the spotlight to blind the frogs and sneak grab them from behind...I was the "gunny" sack holder...the keeper of the frogs. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was an important job...but I really wanted to move up the rankings to Spotlight Sergeant. That desire didn't last long because the front man who held the spotlight was always the one getting rammed into the brush, skirted through the low-lying tree branches full of spider webs, AND the one time he mistakenly picked up a snake for a frog. That was the straw that broke the camels back for me! I don't do snakes. Since I was the "Gunny" Sergeant, I was usually the one to bark out orders and directions (actually it was in a whisper so we wouldn't scare the frogs away) when it came to seeing frog eyes. We would creep in with the spotlight directly on the frog. Any movement or noise and you lose your frog to the pit. Once we caught one, I would open the gunny sack and yell "INCOMING" because the frogs already caught in the bag would just sit there, quiet, with no movement whatsoever...but once a newcomer joined them, the bag would just get to hopping and stirring about like crazy lunatics...then they would settle down once again! Going froggin' was a blast and writing about it makes me want to take my kids sometime and show them what fun it is. Cleaning the frogs wasn't a blast at all. I would go in the house when we got home and wait. I didn't want to hear the "thud" of them beating the frog heads on the board and I didn't want to watch them cut the legs off and skin them. Yes, I ate them...and yes, frog legs taste like chicken.
Going catfishing was quite different than froggin'. You didn't need the boats, but you did need bait...nasty bait. Stink bait or chicken livers were what we used and they weren't lying when they named that nasty stuff stink bait because it stunk something terrible. There could be no other name for stink bait other than stink bait!! I would get the lanterns ready with the lantern oil and we would take snacks and drinks and lawnchairs and sit there and catfish til the wee hours of the morning. We would line up our chairs on the banks of the pit. I would try to NOT sit next to someone that couldn't cast their line. I got whacked a time or two with a pole and that isn't any fun so I would always stand back and watch and then I would place my chair and snacks and bait because I learned...who NOT to sit by!!
Bringing home the catfish was exactly like the frogs...I would run in the house and wait for the guys to fillet them and pack them with salt and water in Ziploc bags and then we would freeze them until we decided to have a fish fry some other evening.
You've probably heard of the Carribean Queen...well, I was the "Crawford County Pits Froggin' and Catfishing Queen"...that has a better ring to it I think! Anybody want to go catfishing or froggin'?!
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