Back in the middle 60′s when Grandpa’s younger sister was planning on getting married, grandpa decided to take her fiance fishing one night in the neighbors farm pond down in the Ozarks. This was an excursion which was unknown to the farmer who owned the pond and it included, to the best of grandpa’s recollection, Grandpa Joe. The manner in which the fishing was accomplished was not with a normal hook and line, but rather with a feigning net – which is not exactly… kosher.
On the trip over they began to explain to the 18 year old future bridegroom of the large fish that could be found in the pond, as well as the very large snapping turtles which were large enough to remove a toe or any other appendage which might be available. Once arriving at the pond they stripped down to their skivvies and the future bridegroom was assigned the duty of going to the middle of the farm pond to drag the net. As the story was told, somewhere about half-way across the farm pond the future bridegroom swore he stepped on a large rock that actually began to move. Guess what he thought! (Disclaimer: No turtles were harmed in the making of this post. Instead, what he actually felt was a large rock)
From what the two future brother-in-laws described, was next to a miracle as they saw their future brother-in-law, Wayne, who was quite large to begin with, speed up and begin to appear to be walking on top of the water as he raced toward the edge of the pond, swearing there was a snapping turtle that was going to remove his feet.
The following morning outside of the house, they did find a large, galvanized washing tub filled with an assortment of carp and goldfish which were anywhere from 12 – 24″ long.
