A Blog to explain what this Blog is here to do!
You know I am obsessed with writing memories from my past. I like to share all of my experiences with as many people as I can. This Blog is not too well known but I don't care because it gives me an outlet for my writing my memories as I remember them.
One of the most memorable events was my fishing trips with Grandpa Rich. (Grandpa Rich was my name for my mother's dad Theodore Richard Niemand. One of his favorite things to do was "fish" and he did most of his fishing at Lake Okoboji ( East Lake Okoboji to be more specific.
I remember that I spent a lot of time visiting my dad and Grandfather at Grandpa's Garage (Thai's what we called his place of business....He was an auto mechanic and my dad worked for him when he wasn't at call at the fire station where we lived.
In the summer I would ride my tricycle from where I lived, (the fire station) to Grandpa's Garage to visit my dad and Grandpa at the Garage.
I had a great time watching them work and Grandpa sometimes would let me use the sparkplug cleaner and clean sparkplugs.
I always made sure I went down to the Garage in the mid to late afternoons. When 4 PM came, Grandpa would look at his watch and say, Dave, would you like to o with me to the Auto Parts store and get some parts I need? I was usually Arnold's Auto Store.
We would drive to the Auto Parts
Shop, Grandpa would take me with
him into the store and get the parts
he needed then we returned to his car. He would look at his watch again and say "Well, Dave, it is
almost closing time." Then we drove back to his Garage where he would place a small piece of paper
in the window of the Garage that
said Be back tomorrow went to the
Lake fishing. He would do that more than once in the summer and we then would head north out of Spencer to the Lakes where he had his fishing boat. On the way we would stop at a place called "Bill's Bait" to get bait for fishing. We also world get a couple candy bars and a bottle of pop.
We usually got some minnows in our minnow bucket some worms and Grandpa liked to get some crawdads to cut up for bait.
When we got to the boat livery where Grandpa left his boat, a place called Danbombs. We loaded our fishing gear into the boat and started off. In the next Blog I will tell you more about our trip to the Lake to fish.
After Grandpa and I purchased our bait and a few snacks we headed for where his boat was placed near the Danbomb boat livery.
His wooden fishing boat was about 12 feet long and had 4 seats. I sat on one of the two middle seats unless I was helping drop the heavy weight ancher to make the boat stay in one place. I then sat in the seat in the front part of the boat
.
I really thought I was "big stuff" to help with the dropping of the ancher and did it the best that I could.
We would motor to the place where grandpa said would be a good place to start. It was located in East Lake Okoboji near a bible camp on the West end of East Lake Okoboji. (Confusing huh?) W would the sit there and fish for, what seemed to be a long time. After we sat there and caught nothing grandpa would say "Lets move to another spot". I then pulled up the ancher and grandpa started the outboard motor and we moved.
We usually caught our limit (15 each) of perch ( see below"):
We would fish until it got dark then grandpa would bring out a small lantern and we would start back to the boat livery.
We placed the fishing equipment and the fish into grandpa's 1938 Plymouth car that he always referred to as his "fishing car" and start for home.
One thing I always looked forward to was our stopping at a small café in the town of Milford that we passed through on our return to Spencer. I always ordered the same thing every time we stopped"... a hamburger and an orange pop.
They were always so good. and after we finished our late lunch we got into the car and continued our trip home.
Grandpa always cleaned the fish so there were no bones when they were fried.
Our fishing trips were always so much fun and I remember the "fishing car to this day!.....
Grandpa's 1937 Plymouth.
See you next Blog!
One of the most memorable events was my fishing trips with Grandpa Rich. (Grandpa Rich was my name for my mother's dad Theodore Richard Niemand. One of his favorite things to do was "fish" and he did most of his fishing at Lake Okoboji ( East Lake Okoboji to be more specific.
In the summer I would ride my tricycle from where I lived, (the fire station) to Grandpa's Garage to visit my dad and Grandpa at the Garage.
I had a great time watching them work and Grandpa sometimes would let me use the sparkplug cleaner and clean sparkplugs.
I always made sure I went down to the Garage in the mid to late afternoons. When 4 PM came, Grandpa would look at his watch and say, Dave, would you like to o with me to the Auto Parts store and get some parts I need? I was usually Arnold's Auto Store.
We would drive to the Auto Parts
Shop, Grandpa would take me with
him into the store and get the parts
he needed then we returned to his car. He would look at his watch again and say "Well, Dave, it is
almost closing time." Then we drove back to his Garage where he would place a small piece of paper
in the window of the Garage that
said Be back tomorrow went to the
Lake fishing. He would do that more than once in the summer and we then would head north out of Spencer to the Lakes where he had his fishing boat. On the way we would stop at a place called "Bill's Bait" to get bait for fishing. We also world get a couple candy bars and a bottle of pop.
We usually got some minnows in our minnow bucket some worms and Grandpa liked to get some crawdads to cut up for bait.
When we got to the boat livery where Grandpa left his boat, a place called Danbombs. We loaded our fishing gear into the boat and started off. In the next Blog I will tell you more about our trip to the Lake to fish.
After Grandpa and I purchased our bait and a few snacks we headed for where his boat was placed near the Danbomb boat livery.
His wooden fishing boat was about 12 feet long and had 4 seats. I sat on one of the two middle seats unless I was helping drop the heavy weight ancher to make the boat stay in one place. I then sat in the seat in the front part of the boat
.
I really thought I was "big stuff" to help with the dropping of the ancher and did it the best that I could.
We would motor to the place where grandpa said would be a good place to start. It was located in East Lake Okoboji near a bible camp on the West end of East Lake Okoboji. (Confusing huh?) W would the sit there and fish for, what seemed to be a long time. After we sat there and caught nothing grandpa would say "Lets move to another spot". I then pulled up the ancher and grandpa started the outboard motor and we moved.
We usually caught our limit (15 each) of perch ( see below"):
We would fish until it got dark then grandpa would bring out a small lantern and we would start back to the boat livery.
We placed the fishing equipment and the fish into grandpa's 1938 Plymouth car that he always referred to as his "fishing car" and start for home.
One thing I always looked forward to was our stopping at a small café in the town of Milford that we passed through on our return to Spencer. I always ordered the same thing every time we stopped"... a hamburger and an orange pop.
They were always so good. and after we finished our late lunch we got into the car and continued our trip home.
Grandpa always cleaned the fish so there were no bones when they were fried.
Our fishing trips were always so much fun and I remember the "fishing car to this day!.....
Grandpa's 1937 Plymouth.See you next Blog!
