Fishless on the opener - can’t catch if you don’t fish

In looking back at years past, I can remember when, as a kid, Dad would take us to the Dairy Bar for Mother’s Day. It was to treat my mother for all of the work that she did for our family. I would usually get a burger basket while mom always got her favorite, a pork tenderloin basket. In some years dad would buy a bag of Made-Rites and take us to Pioneer Park for a picnic. Mom would whip up a batch of her “world famous” (according to me) potato salad and open a can of Van Camp’s beans. Those times will be forever etched in my mind, probably because we never ate out that much, so it was a real treat.

 

We would go to church and then go home to change out of our “church clothes” before going out to treat Mom to Sunday dinner. In those times the noon meal was, and still is at our house, called dinner and the evening meal was “supper.” At our house, the noon meal was the main meal, and the evening meal was more informal. It’s funny how times change, and the English language itself has taken a beating over the last decade or so. Whenever I hear the “proper” usage of the English language being butchered on the radio or TV, I think to myself that my old English Lit. teacher, Grace Dahle, must be turning over in her grave. I will be forever grateful to her for teaching me the correct usage of putting together words, sentences and paragraphs and for actually caring about her students.

 

This carried me through my whole life as far as trying not to butcher the English language. Even before I became a writer, it bothered me when I heard someone using words out of context. When I started writing, I had a lot to learn, but my mentor, Jim Lutgens, would let me know when I was mis-using a word or sentence and point me in the right direction.

 

Until next time: The fishing opener was this past weekend, and I was not invited to take part in the event. After 27 years of attending, I guess it was time to pull the plug. And the event had taken a different direction after Covid, and in my opinion not for the better. There was no community celebration, no picnic at which members of the community could mingle with media and DNR folks and exchange pleasantries. To me, this was the whole idea of the event, not to see the governor catch a fish, but to promote each community's resources and positives. What better way to promote your community than to talk to folks about it and share what makes your community special?

 

When we hosted the Governor’s Opener in 2019, our community came together and put on a spectacular event. This was the last opener where the community celebration was held for the public. I was part of that committee and I worked with many good people who spent many hours over that year to put on a spectacular event. I heard many media folks say that they were very impressed with our community, how they were treated and with the beauty of our area. Having the fish cooperate even made it that much better. Pulling off an event like this would not have been possible without the work of so many dedicated volunteers. It made me proud to be a part of it.

 

Please show your support for our troops who are deployed. These service men and women are making that sacrifice, so that we may have the many freedoms that we enjoy today.