Saturday, November 24, 2012

It's not my first time at the rodeo

Hey Kids, It surely isn't my first time at the rodeo. You see when I was a little girl my mother Sully wasn't the most nurturing. When I asked her about my birth she told me she had me on a fishing boat in a raging storm. She said because of the waves and the rocking of the boat I shot out like Orca across the deck and right into a lobster trap which she just decided to turn into my crib. My father salty corroborated the story so I thought it was the truth. Flash foward to the age of six I believe when my mother took me to my first fishing rodeo where the prize for catching the biggest fish was a dinner at Lobster Larry's down by the docks. Now Looking back I can't understand why it was so important to win this rodeo because my mother and father were fishmongers and could eat all the lobster they wanted. My mother was a shrew that day carrying on about how one of us (myself or my sister Rita) had to win that damn rodeo. She was mad going over our casting technique and our pull and jerk of the rod...my hands were bleeding... It was a rough competiton and there were a lot of kids trying to catch the biggest trout. I was on fire that day and was pulling trout like a master. Though they were all quite small. Sully would balk "it's too small", slap me with it and throw it back in. Finally after about three hours I latched onto a big one. It took me Sully and my sister Rita all our might to reel it in. It was huge. It came in weighing at 10.5 pounds. We all jumped for joy because there was only 10.5 minutes left to the end of the rodeo. We knew it was ours! Sully was sidling up to Larry of Lobster Larry's. He was also judging the competition. Then the unbelieveable happened! Little Joey Jorganson caught onto another big one and he wrestled in a trout that looked about the same size as ours. He and his mother ran over holding their big catch but Larry was nowhere to be found. I also realized Sully wasn't around either so I started walking around as everyone was in a state waiting for little Joey to weigh his fish. I walked over to the little boat house on the dock becuase the door was ajar slightly. I peaked in to see Sully on her knee's appearing to be choking on something. I swung open the door and ran to try and help her when I saw Larry standing over her. I pushed him away to see the biggest trout with only one eye I'd ever seen. I screamed when the trout spit on me with a hot white goop. Sully pushed me to the floor and told me I was a stupid little girl while Larry pulled up his waders and ran out. Mother took her fingers and wiped away the goop from my face and ate it! Yuk! "It's just fish eggs she said" . She then led me back to the crowd where Larry was about to weigh Little Joeys fish. It came in at what Larry said was 10.4 pounds but to me it looked like 10.7. Joey's mother was about to balk when Larry threw the fish back in the water and winked in my mothers direction. I yelled out "why don't you weigh that trout you caught Larry,it's huge"!! Sully coverd my mouth and laughed uncomfortably. We were declared the winners of the 25th Annual Bangor Trout Rodeo under 12 age division. I proudly stood with my trophy trout with Lobster Larryfor the local newspaper. Later that night after Sully scrubbed all that sticky stuff out of my hair I kept thinking about what I saw but was afraid to ask Sully about Larry's odd looking trout. Though I did tell her I was feeling guilty because I thought Little Joey Jorganson had won because his fish looked bigger. Sully grabbed me by the shoulders and assured me I won fair and square. Then she looked at me and said something I didn't understand until many years later, "Sometimes a lady has to bob on a twelve inch trout to be able to enjoy a two pound Lobster" Funny thing is either myself or my sister Rita won the fishing rodeo every year until Lobster Larry was shot dead by his wife because she said he was sharing his trouser trout with every girl in town. It's funny because years later I reconnected with Little Joey Jorganson on Facebook and he sent me this picture. He won the 2010 Trout Rodeo in Destin Florida! Good for him...
It's obviously not his first time at the rodeo kids... See ya at the party... Kisses, MargOH!