The Pond

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When I was nine or so Daddy got some money from the government to build a pond. It wasn't really big - maybe an acre - but it was the first standing body of water on our place. Daddy had it stocked with Bream and Bass and we waited for them to grow. There were tadpoles galore the first year and then when summer came, we had bullfrogs. If you have never heard a bullfrog bellow, it can be a scary thing and we had hundreds of them.


It wasn't long before Daddy and Mac were gigging frogs. I won't go into the gruesome details, but there should have been a lot of little froggie sized wheelchairs involved. Mamma agreed to cook the froglegs, but when she put them in the hot frying pan they started jumping around. That did it right there - she didn't care if the frog wasn't attached to the legs, she couldn't cook something that was moving around. They compromised and Mac would start cooking the legs and she would finish. The froglegs were very tasty as I remember - and they didn't remind me of "chicken."

As is nature's way, the abundance of frogs attracted an abundance of snakes. They were actually Red Water Snakes, but we all thought they were of the Cottonmouth variety and were deathly afraid of them. If they had been poisonous we would have been in a lot of trouble because Red Water Snakes are very agressive. Several times, as I remember, I gave all my surroundings to a snake. Once, Dan Hardy and I gave a boat to one of them. I don't recall anyone getting bitten, but I recall a lot of close calls.

When the fish got big enough the fishing frenzy started. We caught bream after bream and ate them. Then, we learned from my cousin Mitchell and his dad Carrol how to catch Bass and we caught and ate them too! I spent many a day around that pond.

Other people asked for permission to fish and Daddy let them and soon there were always several people at the pond. One afternoon Daddy got his minnow bucket and rod and reel and headed to the pond to fish. He was fishing away when a guy came up and told Daddy he had to leave because this was "his" fishing place. Daddy went to the house and got the .22 rifle and cleaned the pond off. For several years nobody but family were allowed to fish in our ponds.