By Robert D. Bailey, October 14, 2016 — I do not remember my grandfather’s face. He was tall, but all adults are tall to a 5-year-old. He did not talk much, but when he did speak his voice was a soft tone. He took me fishing on an occasion when my grandmother wanted to see her children and grandchildren. She would get sick or have a spell. The news of Mama’s illness would reverberate across the country like a shockwave. My aunt and one remaining uncle living on the west coast, and my mother and the one aunt living in Philadelphia, would leap into Planes, trains, and automobiles in a panic…headed to Meridian, Mississippi; only to find mama sitting in the hospital bed smiling and secure surrounded by her panicked prodigies. The crisis having past, old sibling rivalry and grudges would rise leading to arguments, or at least eyes rolling ominously, but all this is another story.
In all of the emotion, Papa took me fishing. It was a hot day; but as I recall, he wore a wide-brimmed hat and a jacket. I am sure this memory is as much influenced by an obscure black and white photograph of him; then of any real accuracy of a 5-year-olds memory, some 60 years removed. But this sunny hot day is vivid and sheer boyish delight is still tangible. He grabbed the pole and I pranced and skipped alongside him keeping pace with his long slow steady strides. We didn’t have to walk far before we can to the creek (pronounced crick in Mississippi). I don’t remember what he used for bait. It wasn’t worms, but I believe it was a little bread with a little peanut butter. To my dismay, he didn’t have a reel; it was just a pole with the fishing line tied to the end and a hook tied to the end of the line. “Where is the r-e-e-l-y thing?” I asked perplexed. He laughed. “We don’t need it.” And he was right. It seemed no sooner than he cast the hook into the water then he would snatch up the line and on the end would be an immense, bearded catfish. Papa would string the fish on another line that he had with him and place the fish back in the water on the creek hook next to us to keep it fresh.