Wisdom from the WOODS-Summer Vacation
“Wisdom From the Woods” this time I can only give warnings that it is time to be on the lookout for ticks and snakes. In our neck of the woods we have plenty of copperhead snakes. In our 35 year residence here we have confronted only one water moccasin and one cottonmouth that showed up in a real rainy summer.
This summer there have already been copperheads run over by cars and trucks on the highway and a few confrontations by gardeners and squirrel hunters.
It is vacation time and most people have their plans made for the summer. We would like to take a trip to Pennsylvania to visit some friends that we haven’t seen in a long time. A phrase that I learned in journalism class in high school that a writer should never use is ” A good time was had by all” describes our time spent with Jim and Dawn Hyde who have been our hosts before and the welcome mat is out at both our residences any time we want to visit each other.
I don’t know if finances can arranged to make the trip but if they do we will take off for a week or two to spend time with them.
Thinking back over the years, vacations have been few and far between with our family raising three kids took most of the money that I was paid at the DAR and a savings account couldn’t be maintained except for a Christmas Club Account that gave us money for the holidays. Social Security checks also don’t leave much for savings for a trip which we hope to take.
Most of our vacations have been taken to visit our daughter who has been all over the country with her family as her husband, Ron, has been a store manager for most of their married life.
One trip in particular was to Florida and I got to fish in the Gulf of Mexico around Tampa Bay. I wasn’t interested in going Deep sea fishing but now I regret that as the opportunity to do so probably wont present itself again.
Fishing from the beach and a pier was productive with some little fish but nothing of any size to brag about but some of the catch was unusual.
The fish pictured is a “flying” fish. I have never heard anything about this species and all the fish I caught in Florida were catch and release.
Besides the senior trip to Florida in 1951 with the graduation class of Poplar Bluff High School, I have visited Florida twice on real vacations and will write about them in the future.