to admire it and to praise the mighty fishermen. Even the other boat captains came by to see the fish. Herman was so proud of that fish he had to tell everyone. Long distance calls were expensive in those days and I’ll bet all the calls Herman made cost more than the fish. On the long drive home Michael and his father kept up a constant sing-song of “I caught the fish,” “No, I caught the fish.” It finally arrived some six weeks later in a huge crate that sat in the garage forever. The fish hung in our family room in Cherry Hill and when we moved to Florida we took it with us and it hung in the Oakland Park office for a long time. I don’t know where it is now but the memory of catching it is still fresh in all our minds. It was a great day. FUN IN AMISH COUNTRY On another trip we visited Amish country in
that the boat captains might now be agreeable to lowering their prices since fewer people would be considering fishing on a rainy day. He was right. He made a deal with a captain who had a very interesting first mate – she wore a gold lamé swim- ming suit and my guess is that she was not his wife. It was very exciting for the boys just to be out fishing on the ocean with their father. They would sit in the fishing chairs with belts to hold them in if they caught something big. No one had any great expectations though. Then suddenly Michael hooked something that dragged the line right out of the reel. It was a big fish. His father jumped in to help and for the next hour or so they battled a very large sailfish. As the battle wore on the captain shouted that they would only keep the fish if Herman wanted to have it stuffed and mounted. Herman asked him how much that would be. It was going to be a very expensive fishing trip. But it was a once in a life- time experience and Herman wanted that fish as much as the boys did. When it was finally all over Michael and his father had caught and landed the biggest sail fish caught in the past two weeks in those waters. The fish was hung on the dock and people came by
Frank Shooster studying Philosophy at Antioch College
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