THE GOOD OLE DAYS

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Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on November 26, 2013 at 3:30pm

YA KNOW when you are a kid you nnnnnnnnnnever think about the fact that one day you'll be old and not as fit as you once were. Today is my reality check....
  We used to go all day long at what ever we were doing , fishing, hunting , exploring, and just doing what kids did back then. NEVER RAN OUTTA ENERGY , GOT THIRSTY, OR HUNGRY FOR THAT MATTER.

   NOW I make sure I have looooots of water with me to drink . We used to fish the Little Vermillion creek north of La Salle Illinois were I grew up and there was an old spring that came outta a rock face on the west side of the creek. At one time or other a grown up had put an old piece of an automobile tail pipe in the wall and a steady stream of water came out of it just like a faucet. Whallllllla when ever we got thirsty , when it was hot we'd just head up the little valley that came into the creek and drink our fill . Best water I"ve ever had .
  When we'd get hungry we'd just go find the berry patch and have our fill of the wild Raspberrys that grew there , when they were ripe enough anyway. Also there were several wild apple trees someone had planted in the woods millenia ago and they were always ready to be eaten when ripe too, even the green ones. When you are a kid you'll eat or drink almost anything that is handy.
  We could be gone for 10-16 hours and no one ever said how come ya didn't come home ! They knew we were just kids out having fun doing what they do.

  All this brings me to this: NEVER IN MY LIFE did I ever think I'd need or want a cane to walk with , till this past week. While taking good ole Riley for a walk a neighbor was out and her big fat bulldog saw Riley and came a running and attacked my dog . Grabbed the little fella by the back of the neck and started shaking him. Just as I was getting ready to go nutso on the bulldog the woman came a running and said is he ok. I said ya . She tried to pick her dog up and couldn't because he was so fat and heavy she couldn't so she grabbed him by his collar and drug him away . Well Now I carry my grandfathers cane and will tune him up the next time it happens, and she knows me and knows what's coming for good ole LOLA the bulldog . While I was walking by Lola's place today with the cane in hand it made me think of the good ole days when they're weren't many bullies around , like this bulldog. Of course I had Riley on his leash and we were out just minding our own business and this bully had to come along . Oh well LOLA hope you have a thick skull cause it's gonna get tested the next time ya come out..........The cane was very reassuring today and kind of handy to lean on . Now I wear my back brace every single day and it helps a lot as does my new buddy BIG STICK .

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on August 1, 2013 at 3:53pm

HEY WOLF , GGGGGGGGLAD TO HAVE A NEW MEMBER TO THIS GROUP AND IF you haven't read some of the stories of peoples youth here you are in for a treat buddy!!!!!! I have several other groups too but this was the first one I started myself and llllllllllllllllots of input on here from the members and hope we see some of your good ole days memories on here.......
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWELCOME BUDDY

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on February 15, 2013 at 8:38pm

HEY PAUL,
 THANKS FOR JOINING ONE OF MY GROUPS AND WELCOME SIR..... This group of mine here has some fantastic reads in it and when time allows hope you enjoy em as much as I have. LEO'S , Sir Jeffrey's, Dick Tabberts and others are so very realistic it takes me back to my youth also and a Different time in America ..........

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on February 2, 2013 at 10:13am

HEY BOB, THANKS FOR JOINING ALL THREE OF MY GROUPS and this one in particular is a great overview of the Good Ole Days and how it was for everyone on here that cares  to share.Welcome to all my groups buddy..........

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on January 9, 2013 at 6:46pm

When we were kids , about 100 years ago, We all grew up in the time when we said we were going down to the crick , my mom new were we'd be till supper time. Sometimes beyond supper time. 

  One time another reckless youth , my cousin Jody, and I and my older bother had gone down to the crick for the day of fishing and messing about. You know when you were a kid you didn't have to have an agenda like we all do today . Even the kids today have agenda's and apparently they all have social secretaries , WHO ELSE WOULD THEY CONSTANTLY BE TALKING TO ON THOSE GADGETS THEY HAVE GLUED TO THEIR HANDS?
   IN any case a day away down to the crick was the standard when school was out for the summer or on warm spring days on weekends. 

    This stuff all took place somewhere around 1960 or 61. Route 80 was just going in north of LaSalle Illinois then and was a constant haunt of ours. ALready mentioned in an early story I believe, if memory serves.
    This day however we were on our way down to the Little Vermillion Creek just east of La Salle. Down over the long hill to the 100 steps , which was a commercial set of steps that a plant on the east side of our city had put in to be able to go down to the creek themselves for something. I believe it belonged to the M&H Zinc plant that had a low head dam just north of the 100 steps. Well any way we head down and we just happened to have one of my Fathers Brand New Coffee thermos's he would take to work in the afternoons. We had if full of ice water however . 

   You already know what may have happened but here it is anyway. Above the low head dam was of course a pool , 6-7' deep, and just to the north of it was a place called THE ROCKS. Now the rocks were actually huge boulders that had broken of the Limestone cliff just to the east of the creek. BY JUMPING across the rocks we were able to get to the good side of the creek that no one, except kids ever went to! Yo had to jump about 4 feet across maybe more, to get to the other side, which is were we weren't supposed to go but always wanted to .

   Yup jumped across ok , one kid, then another, then the last one . I was the last one of course and had the thermos . I said to my big brother it's too heavy so I'll just toss it over to ya. HE SAID I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT DAVE. What if I drop it ? Of course being always optomistic of my throwing ability and him being much older could surely catch it thus avoiding the wrath of our Father.
   Yup you konw them things are slippery and my brother dropped into the boiling rapids caused by the big Rock Pile. WELL IT WASN'T A GOOD EVENING AS I RECALL and the old man had to go to work with out his shinny new Thermos and he wasn't pleased of course. Well ya live and learn I guess and I learned well that day and started carrying old fashioned canteens then down to the rocks. HAVEN'T BEEN THERE IN 40 YEARS NOW and may go some day soon to see if the rocks are still there, maybe find a thermos also...

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on November 27, 2012 at 9:56am

Welcome to one of my groups Chris!!!!! I know everyone is busy , but when time allows there are 21 pages of stories to read here and they are all worth sharing and just reread em aaaaaaaaaall last night and took a while. Helps me be grounded and realize how lucky I am and many others in this group and on this Site.
  THESE STORIES HERE ARE PPPPPPPPRICELESS.........

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on November 27, 2012 at 9:43am

Very good piece Tooty....I too miss some of the greatest fishermen I have ever known and leraned from.....I always catch an extra for my Grandpa Abney when I go....a tribute to a very good angler and a better man for teaching me much of what I know today......

Comment by dick tabbert on November 26, 2012 at 10:45pm

Memories are good something we can cherish forever. Thanks to people like Uncle Dud and your parents and grand parents you'll have then memories forever nad ever, all they had to do is take an interest and that's what starts everything going. Good memory Tooty thanks for sharing.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on November 26, 2012 at 9:11pm

Now that's a story that brings back beautiful memories. It's not about how many fish we caught, or how big the fish was, but those who led us along that form a powerful bond with the arts we fall in love with. Our physical bodies may be here today, but gone tomorrow. But the wounderful souls and memories that bind together along the way worth more than all the valuables in the world.

 

Thank you for sharing a bitter-sweet memory of your youth. But without this bitter-sweet memory, you wouldn't be where you area now, passing down your skills, knowledge, and wisdom to us toddlers. We will have our bitter-sweet memories of you and everyone here one day, BUT, you ain't going anywhere yet buddy! I'll make sure they inject enough drugs into you to sustain your life for another 5 decades.

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on November 26, 2012 at 8:46pm

WELL LEO HERE WE GO :PROMISED YOU THIS STORY MANY MONTHS AGO ,but it has been hard for me to speak of it till now.

  I posted a pic of my Uncle Dud's rod tonight . He was very instrumental in my early fishing days and is now sadly gone .

  Back when I was a kid with a paper route I had been itchin to buy a fly rod because of the nostalgia of it all . SO down I go to Ace Hardware were MR. STIEN was the owner with his son Bruce. Been talking to him for months about a fly rod and went with a long one cause that was all they had at the time. Didn't know the pleasures of a shorter one then.

  Got my self a brand new 9' Shakespeare Wonderod Fly rod and was now ready to take on the fishing world. Didn't know a false cast from a back cast, but was very familiar with the local Library and went there in the evenings alot because of some young Lass's that hung out there too.
   Read all I could about fly fishing and casting techniques etc. and became fairly  handy at it. 
   Along comes my Grandfathers Death back in the mid 60's and of course the whole family gathered in a small town called Seatonville , were he lived. It was a hot year and after all the ceremonies were over we were all sitting around and asked my Mom  If I could go up to the pond with my new fly rod. She said yes cause what trouble could I get into there!!! Got my brand new fly rod outta the car trunk and as I was passing by family members Old Uncle Dud says , were ya going kid? Of course he saw my fly rod and said wait a minute. He went to his trunk and got out an OOOOOOOOOOld looking metal tackle box and after rumaging though it comes up with a two fly rig. Course I had never seen one before and he tied it on my leader for me and said, You'll catch more than you want with this one and if ya do bring em back and we'll clean em! Of course Uncle Dud was revered throughout the family as THE FISHERMAN !!! And he was  just that , turns out to be the best I ever knew . 
  ONe fly was a Royal Coachman wet, the other a WHite Miller moth imitation. It was late afternoon and got up to the lake two blocks from Grandmas house and was called LAKE ADELPHA. 
  THERE was a floating dock which the kids would dive and jump off to go swimming . Went out on the dock and procceded to catch maybe 50 crappies on the two fly setup. HELL YA I WAS EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! Left at dark and had  a 5 gallon bucket full and all I could do to carry it back down to Grandmas house. There was old Uncle Dud and said ,did you get some? Of course he was surprised to say the least and he promptly started cleaning em for me, NEVER CLEANED A FISH BEFORE MYSELF. That started a life long Love of my Uncle and the sport of fly fishing and what a  way for a kid to start. Sadly Uncle Dud is gone as are Mr. Stien and his son , but the memories persist.............

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