Keep Smiling!

My 'rents called tonite. Talk circled around to the park about a mile from their house, where I grew up ... community pool, pond, playground, baseball fields, tennis courts, track, picnic areas ... spent a lot of time at the park when I was a kid.

Mom mentioned something that I had forgotten. How I used to ride my bike up there with my fishing equipment, to fish in the pond. Now, the pond was a scary thing ... the kind of place you expected to see mutant fish with six eyeballs and feet. I never caught anything. Except myself, once.

I was about 10 years old when a tornado came to town (a normal event, growing up in the midwest), and the emergency 'severe weather' sirens went off when I was fishing with my best friend. I had the brilliant idea to try and ride my bike home (she went to the park office to call her parents for a ride). Every time I tried to pedal in one direction, the wind would pick up my bike and send me in the opposite direction. The hook and fishing line became loose on my rod, and got caught on the knee of my jeans, and I got tangled.

A lady "came to my rescue", saw me fighting with my bike and fishing rod. She -FLIPPED- when she saw the hook attached to my knee. She ran around screaming "It's stuck in your skin! We have to rush you to the emergency room! We have to get you to the hospital!" The emergency sirens were going off, the sky was an awesome brownish-green color, I just looked at her, shook my head, and tried to get back on my bike. About this time, my best friend's mother arrived and we got home safely and removed the hook from my jeans ...

So *I* was the only thing I ever caught at that pond.