By Staff
When I read about my friend Trig Lund's death in the paper a while back, it brought back a memory to me of years past.
Trig had sent a fellow Heddon lure collector over to my house to see if I had any lures or other Heddon items in my collection that he would be interested in buying.
If I remember it right, he bought my bamboo casting rod.
It was one that I had made special for me and I had used in tournament casting years ago when some of us Heddon folks had a bait casting club back in the late 1940s.
Also, if my memory hasn't failed me, this gentleman bought my P-41-IV casting reel, which I used in casting 3/8-ounce plugs.
After making his purchase, this nice fellow offered to take me for a drink. He said to call Trig and have him meet us at the Round Oak for a drink also.
Well, I have to admit, it turned out more than one, if you know what I mean.
In our long conversation, I asked the fellow what he did for a living and he told me he was unemployed.
This kind of set me back as he looked to me like a man of means.
After a while he said, "Charlie, I'm really unemployed at the moment, but I'm a concert pianist in Chicago and I only work when I want."
Trig also told me later this fellow had a college degree the same as his and I can't remember, but it was some kind of engineering degree.
Remember when egg cartons were more squarelike and made out of a brownish, rough-like cardboard and were not oblong or made out of a Styrofoam plastic material like now?
Have you ever had a thick slice of homemade bread spread with "real" butter and a thick layer of brown sugar? Yum, yum good.
Bet you didn't know that by 1860 Dowagiac was the largest wheat shipping station on the Michigan Central Railroad. It even surpassed Chicago.
Also, when Dowagiac was incorporated in 1877, it was the smallest "city" in the United States.
As a kid we used to buy a five-cent, double-flat-sided orange popsicle, break it in half and save one half in the freezer for a later treat.
We also saved the flat popsicle sticks to be used for some kind of an activity later.
Remember in the old days when a hitch-hiker would hold up a crude cardboard sign with big, black letters telling you his destination?
A joke I recall from back in the '40s: Why are so many Fords painted green? So they could hide in the grass and watch the Chevys go by.
And when two Fords passed on the street, the correct time was "tin past tin."