Someone asked me if I have a favorite "Labor Day Weekend" Memory.
Hmmmm.
I can only remember one and it IS my favorite Labor Day Weekend story!
Mom ("You be nice Big Wave DAVID--I am your mother"), Dad, my
brother and me were on an end of summer camping weekend. Early mornings
even in late August start getting really really chilly in my native New Hampshire,
so we bundled up and walked from our campsite to the lake with our tackle box
and gear to do some fishing.
We loaded everything up into the canoe and Dad pushed us off. There was a light
fog on the lake due to the crisp air hitting the warm water of the lake. I have to say,
it looked magnificient even for a 14 year old who wanted to just get back into his
sleeping bag and zonk out for a few more hours.
It was an easy catch that morning! We caught a Baker's Dozen of Rainbow Trout
within an hour and had them trolling the back of the canoe.
Then we heard it. A scrape on the bottom of the canoe, like we hit a piece of granite rock in the middle of the lake. "That was weird", Dad uttered almost under his breath. We looked down
into the water. It was pretty deep. No rocks. Then another scrape--followed by another that
rocked the canoe! This all happened within 20 seconds or so. The finale' was a very loud
scrape followed by the most serious rocking of the canoe one could ever have without tipping
the thing over!
We quickly looked over and saw the shell of a Turtle 3 feet wide and that much or more
in length! All of us in shock, yelled out. Loudly. And it echoed across and through the
early morning fog. We lifted the line trolling our prize catch: 13 Fish Heads. 0 Bodies!
LOL
That Turtle sheared our catch right down to the gills!
To this day, I have never seen a turtle so large. Nor has my brother or my dad.
After a good laugh and some pretty quick paddling, we got back to shore, brought
the canoe back to ground, ran our tackle (and what was left of our catch) back to
the campsite where Mom had a roaring fire to cook our breakfast of fresh trout.
We showed her the heads and it was her time to yell! Loudly. We settled for
flapjacks and eggs and bacon on the pan. And a memory that I get to share with you
and my children of 1 Labor Day Weekend..... many years ago.
Good Times.
BWD
