My life couldn’t be much better than it is today but it was not always like that.
I started life in Ontario, Canada. Our family lived in Scarborough until at age five something happened and I became an orphan. At that point life turn pretty sour and I was shifted from one stranger to another until I guess I just lost myself and turned into an angry little boy.
I am not actually sure how many homes I had been in by the time I was eight but I know it was at least five homes. I was also too young to understand why all this was happening and no one was offering an explanation so as a kid I knew somehow it had to be me.
Then in 1961, just before school started I was moved again. In my mind it couldn’t have been much worse. I went from living in the city to a farm in the country with no indoor plumping. The homes were at least a quarter mile apart and the only person I knew was me.
To make it even worse I was told that it would be best for me to repeat grade two. They felt it would be less stressful on me and I would become more social.
So I was a hurt and lost little boy who didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. But all that was going to change.The people that took me in had an older son, he was almost twenty, his name was Chuck. Chuck took me under his wing and treated me like he had known me my entire life. I had a big brother.
Chuck took me to a small river at the back of our farm and introduced me to swimming and fishing. I had not even held a fishing rod before that.
The day Chuck took me fishing for the first time changed my life forever. While I was fishing I wasn’t angry I was actually free for the first time.
Those days seem so long ago but are so clear in my mind. I have spent many many hours wetting lines and have introduced a few people to the joy of fishing.
All I can think of to end this heart felt post is thank you Chuck and to you…
Take a kid fishing.
