Dear Samuel, I enjoyed fishing throughout the year in 2012, some said this would be the year the world came to an end because of Mayan Prophecy and other ancient views of our future, but I predicted my fishing would not end and it has not as of October 14, 2012. In 2011 we experienced a very warm year and I enjoyed fishing in Gulf of Mexico, during the Thanksgiving vacation! Even on New Years Eve I fished in a Missouri pond with great success. This is a story about my contentment fishing and being a teacher and friend to some very fine students. In a few weeks I will once again see your mother's wonderful family at Thanksgiving. Maybe I will cast a line in Tennessee and like the year before in Alabama give thanks for friends and family! I made several new friends in Alabama and feel the joy of the Holidays, carries over into the New Year.
One friendship in particular made me committed to complete a project that began April, 2010. The creative project is finished now and I am enjoying the result of a transformation project! This story is about that project, the restoration and customizing of an old boat. But even more this story is about a great friendship. I guy can't have too many friends, in my opinion and my letters to you always describe my belief in this! This story begins when I became an art teacher and friend to Scott Kronk and it is about his imagination and crafting skills. Today when I enjoy the fishing in my boat I reflect on other past experiences restoring old cars with your dad too. I think about the importance of imagination. Imagination serves
a fisherman well and to be a good fisherman, one must be inventive and patient!
Memories seem to fuel my imagination as I write these stories to you. With
encouraging friends, one can leverage their creativity and confidence is achieved
largely from the good spirit of friends.I think about the importance of imagination. Imagination serves
a fisherman well and to be a good fisherman, one must be inventive and patient!
Memories seem to fuel my imagination as I write these stories to you. With
encouraging friends, one can leverage their creativity and confidence is achieved
largely from the good spirit of friends.
Memories of times with my brother and my father in a boat my brother owned go back to the 1970’s and are still with me. These days, when I commute to work at sunrise, the seasons, the sun, the moon, rain, snow and ice, even falling rock, have coincided with my prayers. I try each day to consider the two great teachings of Jesus encouraging us to love God (life) and to love one’s fellow man! In the morning, driving east on Hwy. 54, I reflect upon the Word of God. In the morning I seem most immersed in spiritual seasons and realize spiritual growth. What once was a curse, the daily commute, is now a blessing. Each morning the seeing and thinking prepares me to do what I do what is important as a teacher, friend and father.
I am nick named the “fishing professor” I love nature, and I love to paint memories of my nature experiences, and I love to fish. Lately I have been fishing more often and love life and my fellow man more.
I remember, the morning I saw a boat for sale on Missouri Blvd. and began to want this material thing! But I prayed and sort of confessed to God I was being selfish wanting a boat, I could fish from the shore, that was OK! I thanked God for my family, my career and my life. I thought: “I do not need a boat and can easily pass my time fishing from varied locations along the river banks. The very next day I was talking to my old friend Mike Craddock who has kept the William Woods University grounds beautiful for many years. (He is truly a “Man for All Seasons”). His step daughters were students in my basic design class. I helped them paint the colors of the seasons and his horary title on a huge two man, antique hand saw. Any way, I saw Mike on campus the day after I reasoned I did not need a boat. We stood in a parking lot and discussed our "Bucket Lists". I told him how much I relaxed in nature and enjoyed fishing. He asked me where I fished and I described my fascination with the rivers around Mid Missouri. I told him I watched "River Monsters" and the adventures of extreme fisherman and biologist Jeremy Wade. He said he recently purchased some repossessed property from a bank and there was an old boat in a ditch behind the house, but hull was filled with trash and needed a lot of restoration. He said he did not want the boat and remembered the 55 Buick Station Wagon I restored, and believed I could make it float again! That was the day a transformation process began. It was also the beginning of a new adventure with student Scott Kronk. The boat restoration also involved Bill Aaron Jr. and was more a story about making new friends as it was of gaining a boat!
It is nice to have a younger friend always ready for a challenge, whether it is boat building, exploring, fishing flooded creeks or fishing for hours when fish seem to be extinct, and it is encouraging when such a friend accepts challenges in a positive way, and is willing to learn. I first met Scott when I was his professor of basic design. But, it was when we discovered a mutual interest in fishing that our friendship really grew.
In 2011 the boat was still out of the water, in spite of the fact Scott had worked hard on it! In December, my Christmas present to Scott, was a float trip on the Gasconade River in a rented canoe! Sorry Samuel this story is taking so long to tell, but I had to put things into the context of my network of fishing friends, so you can begin to understand how friends make a person's efforts succeed!
We drove toward the Gasconade to enjoy our float trip, but also needed to haul the old boat to Rolla where I arranged for it to be wired and for the steering and motor to be hooked up by Bill Aaron. We approached Freeburg, a small town near the Gasconade River. I asked Scott to stop at the “Outdoor Place” a business of a the Hilkemeyer brothers. I highly recommend them to those who want to buy quality outdoor supplies or rent a canoe and have some assistance with a float trip on the Gasconade River in central Missouri. Since I had not called ahead. I wondered if the “Out Door Place” would be open for business December 29. 2011. I hoped to find Rick or Nicole tending the business. If so, I would persuade someone to rent me a canoe and put us in the Gasconade for a four hour float trip. It was an unusually warm sixty degrees, a rare opportunity to float one of my favorite rivers, and I imagined, if all things worked out it was possible! We pulled in front of the store with the unfinished boat in tow. The place looked dark, but I walked to door and found the business open! Inside were a few guys buying ammo or other hunting supplies. Rick was not behind the counter. But I recognized his brother Nick and asked him if it was possible to facilitate a float trip. Nick explained he had no help to watch the store, so it was not going to work. Then I replied, well we can give you time to cover the store and get things ready, because we still need to deliver that boat outside to Rolla. We can come back when it suits you, I offered in reply. Nick kind of twisted his mustache and scratched his head saying nothing, a long pause, then: well OK. My plan for a memorable Christmas present to Scott was coming together!
On the way to Rolla I told Scott about my friend Bill Aaron Jr. and his years in the boat and motor business. Yea, I said it is kind of sad he is closing his business but he is willing to do one last job or two and our project is on his list! And he will now have time to fish opposed to just helping others float their boats! I am hoping he will fish with us! We talked more about some future adventures and remembered some past fishing success as we drove on to Rolla. I explained how I connected with Bill on Face book and then decided on a recent trip back from southern Missouri to meet him face to face. I described meeting with Bill Aaron, (maybe we met before but he was a few years older and I was not sure), any way the conversation was a friend building experience. We discussed the end of an era, the closing of the family business, some challenges of doing business today and finally he invited me to his “closing Business Fish Fry Party” on January 2, 2011. Then I thought with gratitude, what a blessing to end the year with fishing friends and start the New Year with them too!
When we reached Rolla and pulled the boat up to Aaron’s Boat and Motor, Bill greeted us and the conversation I enjoyed resumed with a good bit of humor. We figured out what we would have him do to complete the project and then with a smile Bill laid the name on our boat I believe will stick: “Lifeboat Titanic”, henceforth to be referred to as “LT”. I laughed so hard, with memories of all the frustrations the boat had created. And like a home movie playing in my mind’s eye I saw the boat being pulled out of the ditch where it was abandoned! I remembered the years of trash that Mike and I pulled out of the filthy boat. There was Scott’s starring role of custom boat builder, and my paper chase through state bureaucracy to acquire a legal title for the abandoned wreck. Then the decision to gut it and completely changed the design, saving only the hull and trailer, shook me for awhile. What the Heck I remembered me saying, It would have been easier and made more sense perhaps to just buy a boat ready to fish from, but ours was a friend testing and friend making process I would always remember! It seemed like ages since April, 2011 when the LT began until December 29, 2011, when Scott and I pulled the LT to Rolla behind Scott’s truck. I had faith in Bill Aaron Jr., his work and experience to bring this protracted project to a happy ending, so I could live and share my own slightly bizarre version of happily ever after! In my prior meeting with Bill, a shared my passion for fishing and even suggested to him a way to make silver carp quite good eating. Then there was the part of our conversation that focused on Christianity and discipleship. I felt certain I had another new friend among the ranks of fishermen! I planned to give him a piece of fishing art. A piece I called: “in youth I fished for Bluegill, in maturity I fish for Christ”! I planned to give it to him Jan. 2, 2012 and start a new year, a new chapter to my anthology of fishing memories at a time when he experienced Aaron’s Boat and Motors “Fish Fry Closing Business” Party.
All of these things were on my mind as I rode with Scott on Dec. 29, LBT in tow! We arrived in Rolla about 10:00 A.M. to find Bill and some of the boys in the shop having morning coffee. Bill helped us get the LBT behind his building and into the boatyard. Before I left I gave my RSVP for his Jan. 2 fish fry closing business party. I felt it was the beginning of another chapter in the life and times of the “Fishing Professor”. It was friend Bruce that encouraged me to write Children, Dogs and Sunflowers, because of an e-mailed story I sent to him. Now I had one book under my belt and felt my lifetime of fishing and the friends I made through fishing was sufficient inspiration for a second book, "Stories for Samuel"!
Without a boat in tow, we headed north on Hwy.63 to put in on the Gasconade River. Scott must have been eager because he mentioned the trip seemed to take forever. But, I reminded him of out great the weather was and the trip would be worth it. His upset stomach would even get better on the river. We need to stop in Vienna and get some ice, sandwiches and drinks for the empty cooler. Then hope Nick has us ready to put in!
About a half hour later plan B worked perfectly and we were being driven down to the Gasconade my Nick and his wife. They were enthusiastic and friendly; I was once again among the ranks of fishing people! It was about 1:00 when we put in for a 4 hr. float. The weather was perfect. We had not gone very far on the river when we came on an old roadway with a slab of concrete hanging over a sunny point where an unnamed creek flowed into the Gasconade. There was a nice place to anchor, or rather tie off on the east bank of the creek. The morning sun had been on the west bank. Scott tied on white spinner bait and I had a small weighted Rapala (imitation minnow lure). Scott cast expertly at the point where creek and river merged. Bang! A strike and a fish on! Soon Scott had a beautiful smallmouth bass in the boat! Then I had a fish on and landed a Kentucky bass. We had fish almost every cast in this amazing place. We pretty much got tired of catching bass and moved on down river in search of walleye. We drifted down river until we spotted bald eagles and stopped to watch them and eat a late lunch. What a day it was. Perfect in every way!
I have confidence something will happen when I fish and the saying comes to my mind “little is great when God is in it”. I realize since the time I was a boy fishing for bluegills that God was in it. Now mentoring and teaching about fishing and sharing life lessons with others young and old I fish in a spirit of brotherly love. Many times when I locate fish, I anchor the boat or tie a canoe to a magic place. I stay in such a place with determination to catch a bragging sized stringer of fish and for certain to create a friendship bond. My dream, vision and talent come not of me but from God who guides me to the great fishing friends. Fish and rivers do what they have always done; they live out their own slightly bizarre version of happily ever after, with mankind being more of a spectator than a participant in their life. What do I bring to the river? What do I take away? I often ask myself. I have studied rivers with an eye to the corrective power of creation. Anchored or tied to a magic tree, I stay on the river for awhile, reflecting upon the great spirit of nature. I have discovered rivers for fishing, floating, relaxing, explaining, teaching, (never proclaiming) about fishing for Christ. I have observed rivers that were channeled and those that were left in a mostly natural state. I think we can learn much by what man does with rivers on this planet, and come to understand that our lives can benefit by the things we cannot control, but rather admire.
So often my children and friends have expressed a deep appreciation for the classic film "A River Runs Through It," Mr. Redford's beautiful and deeply felt classic movie, has touched many people, who appreciate the presence of God’s Grace that can flow into and relax any weary soul. Perhaps when we appreciate this truth, we allow the Father’s love to flow in our life. But, when we are burdened, overworked and anxious we succumb to pressure. One’s soul is not designed to be channeled, in artificial ways, to maximize a swifter passage through a life time. Eventually such an artificial channel of a man’s design will produce pressure on the body and soul that carries the current of destructive force, until a flood of the wrong source produces too much stress and man’s levee breaks. When the natural river that meanders through the seasons, floods there is adaptation and not a great surprise by the flood. But, when the channeled river breaks down an artificial levee there is disaster and suffering. Float the current of God’s grace through these seasons of your life and enjoy the trip He will guide you on!
Anchor your soul in the river of your time on earth. Study the natural rhythm of seasons and enjoy your perception with friends. Ask what you can bring to the river and what you take away. For me I often feel like the young boy who brought two fish and five loaves to the masses. Little became much when he gave it to God. God will multiply your blessings!