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If Mark Twain had been born on Caddo Lake instead of in
Hannibal, Missouri he might have written the adventures of
Loren and Don instead of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Chapter 1
Loren was twelve years old
the summer of the year of our lord nineteen hundred and
forty five. He lived with his grandmother Nana Tucker on the
bank of Caddo Lake.? His grandmother ran a small fishing
camp.? She had two small cabins and ten flat-bottom jon
boats to rent.? She also had a ramp for launching boats that
she charged to use.
Loren??™s parents had been
killed in a car accident and his grand mother was now
raising him.? Grandma Tucker was in her sixties and had been
running the camp by herself ever since Grandpa Tucker had
been killed by lightning out on the lake.
Loren had to help his
grandmother around the camp by mowing the grass, keeping the
rental boats clean and helping the people that rented the
boats.? This usually meant helping them carry their fishing
gear to the boat and helping them unload the boat when they
came back in.
Sometimes they would tip
him a dime for helping them and he was always careful to say
thank you when they did.?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 2
Don was Loren??™s best
friend and he lived with his grandmother and grandfather,
Bonny and Wayne Freeman.? Their house was across the road
from tuckers camp.? Wayne was a commercial fisherman and
made just enough money from that to keep from having to go
to work at a real job.
Sometimes he would make
Don go with him to bait and run his trotlines.? There were
times when Wayne was ready to go run his lines when he
couldn??™t find Don and he would have to go by himself.
Any time that Don knew
Wayne would want to run his lines, he would make sure Wayne
didn??™t know where he was. ? Don didn??™t like baiting trotlines
because Wayne always made him do the baiting and that
catfish bait stunk to high heaven.? The smell would stay on
your hands for days regardless of how much you washed them.
Bonny kept chickens and
Don had to feed them and gather the eggs each morning.? At
least he got to eat eggs for breakfast.? All he ever got for
dinner was a peanut butter sandwich and most of the time he
had to eat fish for supper.? But that was all right because
he liked fish.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 3
One day when Don and Loren
were on their own they decided to take one of the jon boats
and go fishing.? They got their fishing poles and a can of
worms and paddled out to Bird Island.? Now Bird Island is
not an island at all.? It is a bunch of real thick cypress
trees with about three feet of water under them.? They are
so thick that there is only three places around it that you
can get inside.? After you get inside the trees open up so
you can move around in there.
There was always a bunch
of bream there and that??™s what Loren and Don were fishing
for.? As they drifted along slow from one tree to the next
they would catch two or three bream at every tree.? They had
a five-gallon bucket they were putting their fish in as they
caught them.
After a couple of hours
fishing they had a bucket full of fish.? So they stopped
fishing and just sat there in the shade of the trees. ? Don
sat down in the bottom of the boat and propped his feet up
on the side.? They had been talking about what they wanted
to do when they grew up.
All of a sudden Don
started snoring.? Loren said ???well shoot???, and he lay down
in his end of the boat and went to sleep also.? When they
woke up, the birds were singing and flying around close to
the boat.? Loren saw that some birds had even turned over
the can of worms and eaten every one of them. ? Don and Loren
saw it was getting close to sun down so they paddled back to
camp and cleaned their fish.
Loren took them in to
Grandmother Tucker and she cooked them for supper. ? Don ate
supper with them that evening and between the three of them
they ate every one of the fish. ? Don said good night and
then home.? Loren went down to the boats and sat down on one
of them to listen to the night sounds,
There were lots of
crickets and tree frogs singing.? Once in a while a big
bullfrog would chime in with his song.? After a while the
owls started their calling to one and other.? Loren decided
it was time to go to bed.
Chapter 4
Life went on pretty much
as usual for several days and then Loren and Don had a
chance to go fishing again.? This time they paddled out to
twin islands.? Again these are not islands but thick bunches
of cypress trees.? As Loren and Don worked their boat into
the trees a snake dropped into the boat from an over hanging
limb.
When Don heard the snake
plop on to the bottom of the boat he turned around to see
what that noise was and saw the snake.? He let out a yell
and grabbed the first tree he could reach and abandoned
ship.?
This left Loren to fight
the snake by himself.? Loren already had his paddle in his
hands so he started beating at the snake with it.? The poor
snake was just trying to get away when he ran to the back of
the boat where Loren was sitting.? Loren had broken his
paddle and didn??™t have anything else to use for a weapon so
he jumped over board.
Now Don was safe in the
tree and when he saw Loren fighting the snake until he broke
his paddle and jump over board he started laughing. He was
laughing so hard he lost his hold on the tree and fell into
the water also.? Now Loren started laughing at him.
They both climbed back in
the boat just as soon as they saw the snake crawl over the
side and disappear under the water. They decided they
weren??™t all that interested in fishing that day and Loren
made Don paddle back to camp.? After all his paddle was
broken.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Chapter 5
The next time they had a
chance to go fishing, they decided they would put out some
limb lines.? They caught some small bream to use for bait
because they wanted to catch a big catfish.? Loren had found
some of grandfather tucker??™s lines with big hooks and strong
line.
They paddled out to some
cypress trees and tied the limb lines on low hanging limbs.?
Then they baited them with the bream they had caught and
paddled back to camp.? They agreed to meet at the boat at
day break the next morning to run their lines.
The next morning just
before the sun came up they were on their way to the first
line.? Loren had brought a big net that his grandfather used
to land big fish.? They were full of anticipation as they
got to the first line.? But it didn??™t have a fish on it and
the bait was gone.?
Same thing on the next six
lines then as they paddled to the next tree they could see
the limb jerking up and down.? The line was cutting circles
in the water and they knew they had a big fish on this line.?
Loren got hold of the line
and Don got the net.? Loren told Don when he got the fish
pulled up to the surface he should net him quickly, before
he got off the hook.
As Loren pulled on the
line the fish made a strong lunge that aimed it straight
toward the tree.? Just as the fish got to the tree it jumped
out of the water.? Loren was still pulling on the line and
this made the fish jump straight up the tree trunk.? It went
up the tree about four feet in the air.
All this time Don was
standing there with the net waiting to net the fish.? When
the fish jumped into the air Don followed it up with the net
and caught it when it fell back.? He pulled it in the boat
and looked at it.? It wasn??™t a catfish, it was a gar and
they didn??™t eat gar.
They checked the rest of
their lines but they were all empty.? So they took their gar
and went back to camp.? When they got there they had their
gar out on the ground looking at it.? They were trying to
decide what to do with it when Wayne walked up to see what
the boys were doing.
When Wayne saw the gar he
told the boys he knew where he could sell it and he reached
down and picked it up and walked off. ? Don knew they
wouldn??™t be getting any of the money and he told Loren so.
Don went home to feed
Bonny??™s chickens and eat breakfast.? Loren cleaned up the
boat and put the net away and went in the house for his
breakfast.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 6
Grandmother tucker finally
agreed to let Loren use the little three horse Johnson out
board motor that had been grandfathers. This meant that Don
and he could go further out into the lake to do their
fishing.? They would put the motor on one of the jon boats
and putt putted along until they were out in the middle of
the lake.?
One day when they could
get away for a while they putt putted out to some duck
blinds.? There were always lots of big bream around the duck
blinds and they caught a bunch that day.? The only problem
they had was getting their lines close enough to the under
water brush where the fish were.? The brush on top of the
blind kept getting in the way.
When they got back to camp
and cleaned their fish, they put them in grandmother??™s
freezer until they were ready to eat them. ? Don said the
next time they went to the duck blind to fish he would take
care of the problem on the brush being in the way.? Loren
figured he was going to take a saw and cut some of the brush
out of the way.? Boy was he going to be in for a big
surprise.
Don had to help his
grandpa bait trot lines for the next several days and Loren
had to mow all the grass around the cabins and house.? It
was a week before they got a chance to go fishing again.?
They put the motor on one of the boats and Loren filled it
with gasoline from the can in the storage building.
They motored back out to
the duck blind and got ready to fish.? Loren noticed Don had
not brought a saw and he figured Don had just forgot to.
? Don was in the front of the boat and he paddled up to the
blind and reached into his pocket and pulled out a match.?
He struck the match and held it to the brush on the duck
blind.
He said they would just
burn a little of the brush out of our way and the splash
some water on the fire and put it out.? We weren??™t going to
burn any of the wooden part of the blind.? The brush was old
and dry so it blazed up in a hurry. ? Don started hollering
to start splashing water on the fire. ? Don was throwing
water on the fire with the five gallon bucket they used to
put their fish in.? Loren was trying to splash water on the
fire with his paddle.
But nothing they did
stopped the fire.? It kept getting bigger and the smoke was
reaching high into the air.? Loren told Don to forget it
they were getting out of there before someone saw the smoke
and came to investigate.? Loren cranked the motor and they
made a run for some cypress trees to hide their getaway.
The next time they went to
that duck blind to fish they didn??™t have to worry about
brush getting in the way.? In fact they didn??™t have to worry
about the duck blind getting in the way.? Everything was
burned down to the surface of the water.? So they started
going to another blind to fish.?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 7
One day when they were
able to get away they decided they would go exploring.? They
put the motor on one of the boats and took off up the lake.?
They went up the old river bed for a while and then turned
left through a cut in the bank that had a sign that said it
was ???star ditch.???? ?
This ditch ran about ?? of
a mile and they came out in another part of the lake.? They
followed a boat road through the lily pads for a couple of
miles and came to another fishing camp.? They stopped there
and asked them what camp that was and they told them it was
Crip's camp.
Ok, so they had learned
something about the lake that was new to them.? They were
excited to learn more so we took off back down the boat
road.? When they got back to star ditch, they didn??™t turn in
but kept going.? Now the boat road took them close to the
south shore and they could see a rock house.
But just then the motor
stopped running.? It had run out of gas and they hadn??™t
brought any more with them.? They paddled over to the bank
where the rock house was, hoping they could borrow some
there.
But when they got there
they saw a sign that said ???no trespassing government
property??? and the house was empty.? Loren and Don thought
they didn??™t have any choice.? They were out of gas and
didn??™t really know where they were.? So they started walking
up the dirt road from the house.
After they had walked a
mile they saw an army jeep coming down the road.? The jeep
pulled up in front of them and these two soldiers with white
arm bands that said ???m p??? on them got out of the jeep with
rifles.? One of the soldiers asked Loren and Don what they
were doing trespassing on the ammunition plant grounds?
Then it dawned on Loren
where they were.? They were on the ???long horn ordinance
plant??? reservation that backed up to the lake.? He had seen
the high fences around the grounds over at Karnack.? But
that was miles from here and he couldn??™t understand how they
had gotten on their reservation.
Loren told them about
running out of gas in their motor and paddling over to the
house to see if they could borrow some.? When they found the
house closed up and no one there they started walking along
this road.? That??™s when we saw you coming.
The soldier asked Loren
how he could know they weren??™t Russian spies trying to blow
up the plant?? Loren and Don got really scared then.? They
were afraid they would be shot as spies.? The soldiers
loaded them in the jeep and took them to an officer and told
him where they had found them.
The officer questioned
them and they told him the same story they had told the m
p.? He asked Loren if anyone could vouch for him and he said
his grandmother could.? The officer asked what his
grandmother??™s name was and her telephone number.? When Loren
gave them to him, he had the soldier take them out of his
office and lock them in a room.
In about an hour
grandmother tucker came and got them and took them home.?
She had brought a boat trailer and they took the boat with
them.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 8
Needless to say they were
grounded for the next month.? No more going fishing or going
any where away from the camp.? Loren couldn??™t use the boats
any more even if he paddled out.
Each morning, after
breakfast, he had to go down and wash out the boats.? Even
those that hadn??™t been used the day before.? After that
Loren had to go sweep out the cabins and mop the floors,
even if they hadn??™t been rented.
Then he would have to
spend the rest of the day mowing the grass.? Grandmother had
the best looking yard in the neighborhood.? Well the
shortest grass of any yard in the neighborhood.
Business was slow but when
someone did come to rent a boat it gave Loren a break from
mowing and he was thankful for that.
Loren hadn??™t seen Don in
days because he was grounded too.? The only time he was
allowed to leave his house was when he went with his grandpa
to bait trot lines.? He was given extra chores to keep him
busy all day.? Grandpa Wayne had bought a load of wood for
their fire place and Don had to split it with an axe.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 9
One day a fisherman came
in with his own boat.? He stopped and paid grandmother to
launch his boat on their ramp and then drove down to the
ramp.? He turned around and backed his boat up to the ramp.?
Then he stopped his old pickup so he could put all his
fishing gear in the boat before he backed down the ramp.
After he had everything
loaded in his boat, he backed down the ramp.? Then he shut
off the motor of his pickup and got out to push his boat off
of the trailer.?
As he climbed up on the
trailer tongue to push, the old pickup slipped out of gear
and started rolling backwards down the ramp.? It didn??™t stop
until the water was up in the cab.
At least the guys boat
floated off the trailer, but he had to wade out of waist
deep water.? He opened the cab door and sat down in the seat
and tried to start his pickup.? But the water had gotten
over enough of the motor that it wouldn??™t start.
There he sat, his boat was
floating free out in the lake, his pickup wouldn??™t start and
he was wet up to his waist.
He finally walked back up
to the house and told grandmother what had happened.?
Grandmother called Wayne and asked him to come pull the guys
pickup out of the lake.
Wayne drove his old pickup
down to the ramp and told the guy he would pull him out for
ten dollars.? Wayne was just full of Christian charity. What
else could the guy do?? He paid him.
In the mean time Loren had
paddled one of their boats out to the guys boat and pulled
it to shore. He asked Loren how much he owed him for doing
that and Loren told him nothing, I was just happy to be able
to help you.? You know what? He gave Loren a dollar tip for
helping him.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 10
Grandmother tucker decided
it was time to paint the out side of the cabins again.? They
were all ways painted a dull red color.? Loren asked her why
they were always painted that color and she told him it was
because granddad tucker had bought a 55 gallon drum of that
paint one time and it was going to last for the next twenty
years before she had to buy any more.
The morning Loren started
painting number one cabin Don was able to sneak off and come
over to watch him.? Loren offered to get another paint brush
and let him paint also but he declined.? He was sitting in
the shade of a tree eating an apple, watching Loren paint
when three smaller boys walked up.
They wanted to know what
they were doing and Don told them they were taking turns
painting the cabin.? After watching a little while they
wanted to know if they could have a turn. ? Don told them
couldn??™t just anybody paint.? You had to know how.? He asked
them if they had ever painted any thing before.? They told
him no but they were willing to learn.
Don jumped up and took the
paint brush away from Loren and told the boys to watch him.?
He painted for about five minutes and one of the boys said
he thought he could do that.? So Don handed him the paint
brush and told him to try.? He painted for fifteen minutes
and one of the other boys said it was his turn.
The second boy painted for
fifteen and then the third boy wanted his turn.? After that
the first boy wanted another turn.? All Don and Loren did
the rest of the morning was to refill the paint bucket from
the 55 gallon drum and move the ladder.? The rest of the
time they sat in the shade of that tree.
We told the boys we would
be painting again tomorrow morning if they wanted to come
back and paint some more.? They said they would see us in
the morning.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 11
One morning a man named
john rented one of grandmother tucker??™s boats to go bream
fishing.? Loren helped him put his motor on the boat and got
all his fishing gear loaded.? He told Loren he knew where
there was a big bream bed out in some cypress trees and that
was where he was going to fish today.
Loren knew about where he
was talking about.? There was a old duck blind built between
two trees there.? At least what was left of the blind.?
There was a small platform large enough for one person
between these two trees and some chicken wire that use to
hold blush for camouflage.
Grandmother had Loren
mowing the grass that morning and at noon he had stopped and
gone in the house to eat a peanut butter sandwich for
lunch.? By the time he had finished his sandwich he walked
back out on the front porch and saw that a little thunder
storm had started.? So he went back in and laid down for a
nap.
An hour later grandmother
shook him awake and told him john had not come in from the
storm and she was worried.? The storm was over and the sun
had popped back out.? She asked Loren if he knew where john
was going to fish that day.? He told her what john had told
him about the old duck blind.
Grandmother tucker told
Loren to go put their little three horse motor on a boat and
go see if he could find john.? After he got their motor on
the boat he had to bail out the rain water before he could
go.? While he was doing this Don showed up and wanted to
know what he was doing.? When Loren told him, he asked if he
could go along.? He said he had never seen a drowned person
before.
They motored out to the
cypress trees where the old duck blind was.? Before they got
there they saw John??™s boat turned upside down and floating
away from the trees.? They went to the boat and Don and
Loren were able to turn it right side up.? But it was full
of water.? Loren still had the coffee can I used to bail the
rain water out of his boat so Don started bailing the water
out of John??™s boat.
When he got enough water
bailed out he could get in John??™s boat without it sinking he
jumped over into his boat to finish bailing it out. Loren
cranked the motor and ran back to the old duck blind and
there sat john on that old platform.? He was wet and cold.?
He said he had seen the thunder cloud coming but he was
catching so many fish he wouldn??™t stop and go in.
When the wind first hit
before it started raining he knew he had waited to long.? He
jumped up on the platform just as the wind turned his boat
over.? He had sat there in the rain as his boat drifted
off.? He had been sitting there for over two hours.? He
didn??™t think anyone was ever going to find him.
After Loren got him down
into his boat they went back to don.? By this time Don had
most of the water bailed out of John??™s boat and Loren tied
it to his boat and pulled it back to camp.? When they got
there grandmother took john up to the house and gave him a
blanket to put around him and a cup of hot coffee.
After that mishap they
called that bunch of cypress trees at the old duck blind
???John??™s hole.???
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 12
Once a year, Grandmother
Tucker threw a big fish fry for all the neighbors.? She had
told Loren to set out some of granddad tuckers limb lines
and bait them with weenies.? He had been doing this for a
week now and he had caught a bunch of catfish.
Each day as he ran the
limb lines and brought in the catfish, he would clean them
and grandmother would put them in the freezer.? After a week
they had about 40 pounds of fish and grandmother said that
was enough and had Loren take up the lines.
Now it was time to invite
all the neighbors for the fish fry.? As was the custom each
neighbor was to bring something.? Some neighbors brought
potatoes to be fried when the fish were cooked.? Some
brought a salad and others brought some kind of dessert.
Grandmother had Loren make
the rounds of their neighbors houses and invite them on a
Sunday afternoon after church.? They all accepted and this
would make 31 people for their annual fish fry.
On the day of the fish fry
people started showing up right after church.? They had a
big butane- cooker that granddad had made.? Some of the men
fired it up and put a big pot of grease on it to get hot.?
When the grease was hot enough they started dropping in the
fish that the women had cut up and rolled in yellow corn
meal.
After cooking a couple of
pots of fish they would fry a pot of potatoes,? the women
had pealed them and cut them up for French fries.? It wasn??™t
long until all the fish and potatoes were cooked.
Everyone had brought some
kind of table and lawn chairs.? All the tables were placed
end to end in a long line.? All of the food was laid out on
the tables and we formed a line at one end and went down the
tables and filled our plates.? Then we all sat in a big
circle so we could visit while we ate.
Grandmother had placed two
empty 55 gallon drums near by for trash barrels.? After
everyone had eaten all they could hold the men sat around
swapping fishing stories while the women cleaned up.
Soon they began to drift
away three or four at a time until they had all gone home.
? Don and Loren walked down to the edge of the water and sat
down on one of the boats that had been turned upside down.
? Don asked Loren why his grandmother had the fish fry.?
Loren told him it was something his granddad had started
before he got killed and it made her feel good to continue
the tradition.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 13
After the fish fry Don and
Loren got a reprieve from being grounded and they finally
had sometime together.? One evening just at dark, they were
sitting on a boat that they had turned upside down talking.?
As they sat there they could see the fireflies flashing
their little tail lights on and off.? The tree frogs started
chirping and a big bullfrog was doing his thing.
Loren asked Don if he
wanted to go frog gigging.? It had been a while since they
had eaten any frog legs. ? Don said he just wasn??™t up to
going frog hunting tonight.? Then he asked Loren how long it
had been since he had eaten any watermelon?
Loren told him it had been
a long time.? Grandmother Tucker didn??™t like watermelon so
she wouldn??™t buy one.? Then Don told him he knew a place
they could get a watermelon without having to buy it, and
that??™s what started the great watermelon raid.
There was this farmer that
lived about a mile back up the road that had a big
watermelon patch out close to the road where he raised black
diamond watermelons.? As every one knows black diamonds are
the best tasting watermelons there are and farmer Wyatt won
blue ribbons at the county fair every year.
Don told Loren all they
had to do was wait until after dark and walk up there and
pick them a watermelon.? Grandmother had always taught Loren
not to steal and this sounded like stealing to him. ? Don
said the old man would never miss one melon.? Besides he had
dozens rot in his field every year.
They made their plans to
go tomorrow night and Loren could almost taste the
watermelon.? When it got dark they met on the road behind
grandmother??™s house.? They had both wore a dark colored
shirt and blue jeans.? They hiked up the road to Wyatt??™s
watermelon patch and sat down in the ditch next to the road.
After sitting there about
ten minutes without seeing anything move they decided it was
safe to go out into the melon patch.? Loren stopped at the
first melon he came to and started to pick it up. ? Don said
to wait a minute, let??™s go out in the middle of the field
and make sure we got a good one.
He was walking along
thumping one and then another with his knuckles.? We want to
make sure we get a ripe one don??™t we?? He asked Loren.? He
kept walking around thumping on melons until he found one
that sounded ripe to him.? He bent over and pull it off it??™s
vine and picked it up.
That??™s when the shotgun
went off and Don dropped the watermelon.? They both took off
running as fast as they could.? They heard the shotgun go
boom again as they jumped that ditch and turned down the
road toward home.? They got home a lot quicker then we had
got to the melon patch to start with.
Old man Wyatt must have
been sitting out there with his shotgun just waiting for
someone to raid his melon patch. ? Don said it was a good
thing it was dark or he might not have missed us. ? I know
one thing Loren told don, I don??™t intend to try to steal any
thing again.
The next morning, Wyatt
drove up in front of grandmother??™s house in his old pickup.?
Loren was down at the rental boats helping a man and his
wife put their fishing gear in a boat when he saw him.? Oh
no, Loren thought he has come to tell grandmother about Don
and I trying to steal one of his watermelons.
After the man and his wife
motored off, grandmother called Loren.? He slowly walked up
to the house and when he got there grandmother said that
Wyatt had something for him.? They walked out to his pickup
and there in the bed was a big black diamond watermelon.?
Loren looked up at Mr. Wyatt and he just grinned.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 14
One day grandmother tucker
told Loren he was going to have to run the camp for her.? He
didn??™t understand this because she had just been to the bank
and grocery store two days ago and that??™s the only places
she ever goes.?
Loren asked her where she
was going.? She told him she was going fishing today.? Well,
you could have knocked him over with a feather. He had never
known of grandmother going fishing as long as he had lived
with her.? But he guessed there is a first time for every
thing.
She had Loren put the
motor on one of the boats and she got a cand pole and a can
of worms and climbed into the boat.? She cranked the little
motor and off she went.? She disappeared into the cypress
trees and Loren stood there listening for as long as he
could hear the motor.
About four hours later
Loren heard the little motor and knew grandmother was coming
back.? He ran down to the bank and stood there waiting for
her.? When she shut off the motor and let the boat coast up
to the bank, he pulled it on up so grandmother could get
out.? He asked her if she had caught and fish.
She told him that she
hadn??™t really been fishing.? She had just wanted to get out
on the lake like she and granddad use to do.? She had just
been riding around remembering granddad.? She went back up
to the house and for as long as Loren lived with her that is
the only time she ever went out on the lake.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 15
As time went by Loren grew
older and went off to college.? Grandmother tucker was left
to run the camp by herself.? ? After college Loren went to
work at a general motors assembly plant in Arlington, Texas.
Don finally left home and
got a job driving a long haul truck.? Loren would get a
letter from him every once in a while for a couple of
years.? But they quit coming some time ago.? Loren had no
idea what happened to him or where he is.? His grandpa died
of cancer and his grandma bonny moved away.?
Grandmother tucker ran the
camp by herself in to her 90??™s and died of cancer.? She left
the camp to Loren and he fenced it off and made it a private
place out of it.? It is only a three-hour drive from
Arlington and he goes down on weekends and when he has a
vacation.? He still has the little three-horse motor and he
goes for a boat ride out into the cypress trees with all the
Spanish moss hanging on them.? He says he thinks he
understands now why his grandmother went for that boat ride.
It??™s peaceful on the lake
and you can relax and remember other times.? He thinks
grandmother was remembering her life with grandfather tucker
before he died.
Loren says he will never
sell the place on Caddo Lake.? Some day he will marry and
have kids of his own and he will leave it to them.? He hopes
they will see the beauty of the lake as he has and will pass
it along to their kids.
?© 2004 by Loren Moore
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May you be blessed today.
Bob Johnston
Editor / Publisher
To read archived stories, click on this link:?
http://archives.zinester.com/9516/2004?
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