You can learn a lot from the little pond in your own back yard; all about the slimy black water snakes, the call of the monstrous man-eating frogs and the slippery sludge that can suck the life away from you in a moments notice; all these fancy little ponds - oh yes, and canoes flip easy in smaller spaces. Snakes, sludge, frogs and fish…I have so much to learn.
Dad took me fishing in the little pond almost daily when I was a young girl, I would catch a trout now and then. He and I would stand on the banks by the cattails and I would cast out the line of my little Snoopy fishing pole; feel the tug and reel it in and with a little fling over my back shoulder the fish would land softly on the grass. Sometimes I would play with them in a bucket full of water and other times I would scale, gut, clean and fry them up for dad and I…well, the ones ‘Idle’, our cat, didn’t snatch off the hook for himself. The snakes and frogs didn’t bother us much back then and we didn’t have much use for any canoes, just the rod, real, line and hook is all we needed for a decent catch.
Dad caught more then a tricky trout once; overly curious and leaning in, I slipped on the sludge in our little pond, right down into the muck and reeds I went - the water was over my head, mud between my toes and darkness choking my airways - daddy pulled me up. After that, it occurred to him he would need a back up plan in order to keep me safe from precarious waters of the world; he didn’t want just any fish taking me, it would have to be a whale worthy of the catch - so, he taught ‘Lady’, my dog, to save me from drowning using my old winter coat strapped onto a big stuffed toy. Luckily Lady never had to try out her skill in the water but she did save me from a few wrong fishies with a couple of growls and nips. Mike was one of the fish I found along the way, he came after the wind took Lady; I wonder if she would have nipped him…
Mike and I love to fish and canoe, although I didn’t always jump at the idea. He didn’t care much for fishing along the banks, he wanted to drop the canoe in and paddle out deep. There was a time when I was very scared at the thought of being out in the middle of nowhere, in a little tipsy boat, with a man who wasn‘t my dad. The last thing I wanted to do was flip a canoe, lose my glasses, have the boat bash me in the head, my legs cramp up and end up just swimming with all the fishies…no dad to pull me up, no Lady to pull me out.
Mike and I started with a few small boat trips; around Branch Pond and under the bridge into Branch Lake, weaved through the rocks into Patten Pond, and danced with dragonflies out on Blunts. I got the feel for the quakes motor boats left behind, the winds from storms rolling in and the pull from the feisty bass on the other end of the fishing lines; like learning to drive a car, I needed to experience all the conditions - I needed to learn to stay afloat without my winter coat.
Not always the patient man, Mike has thrown lots of obstacles at me; the aqua critters get more fierce, the ponds get deeper and the waters get rougher but we keep taking the boat in and dropping the line. He wants to do the Penobscot Canoe race and he’s been trying to wheedle me into doing it with for the last three or so years. I’ve seen the pictures and I’ve got to admit it looks great but I’m just not ready. The white water waves crashing over us, the huge rocks to maneuver around… He wants to do the canoe race so badly he can taste it. Be it a canoe race or a sweet catch; he’s always got his eye out for that next big adventure and catching that big, record-breaking bass; I sometimes wonder if I’m just the paddle part of his journey.
Mum told me that her and Dad would boat out to a big rock in the middle of Union river and fish from that spot, my parents divorced when I was six - their canoe tipped too many times. Mum keeps a picture of her parents, they are sitting side by side fishing from a rock they had boated over to, my grandparents divorced after thirty some years of marriage - Grammpy took the bait but it wasn‘t Grammy’s hook that he latched on to… Maybe, like Mike, there is something that I want so much that I can just taste it too but sometimes the canoe tips and the fish just don’t bite.
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Rarely do I catch a student trying out metaphor or symbol to this extent. They are tricky because overdone they are deadly and even silly, but you have a nice way of letting the metaphor be both itself (an actual canoe or fish, say) and also something considerably beyond itself.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to you about finding a vehicle, finding a way to approach material without puking it up raw--and something like this is exactly what I had in mind.
There really is a lot here--it covers years and generations--and you keep it all humming along very efficiently and effectively.
Are you happy with it?
Am I happy with it?
ReplyDeleteYes and No. I cut out the parts about my mom, which is hard because she actually played a bigger role in my upbringing then dad did. But the dad - nature - fish part all fit much better; just about all true too - so that's why I did that. But I do feel bad about it; like mum might be hurt to read this.
There are also some lines that I actually don't care for - I feel they muddle it up too much. But when I tried to cut them the parts around them didn't seem to make as much sense or didn't seem to flow that well...so I left them. Example: The 2nd to the last paragraph when I talk about the Penobscot canoe race and the big bass catch - there is too much here for my liking but I don't know quite how to weed it out and still make it sound the way I want it to.
There are a few other spots too.
But I do like it too. Mum and dad did fish of the rock in the Union river - I loved when I heard those stories, and mumma really does have that picture in her dining room of her parents fishing. Dad and I did fish, he did teach Lady to save me, she did bite the jerks I brought home and Idle did eat my catches (hook and all) for all the truths and actual memories - I like it.
For being able to atleast somewhat convey how I feel with those truths...I like.
But it does need more work in my opinion. I think if you ask for a rewrite I may have to walk away from it for a bit because I've read so many times recently that I need it out of my head for a bit to get a fresh look.