In the Mindset series I reminisce about some of my favorite memories of my daughter's life when she was younger. I hope that the task of writing these entries will serve me well, and I hope too that you will enjoy going on this trip with me.Today's journey takes us to visit our trips out to the old fishin' hole. If you are now picturing the opening montage from the old Andy Griffith show with Andy and Opie, our version of fishing was quite different. In the apartment complex where we used to live, they had a small, man-made decorative pond near the entrance. The pond was stocked with lots of minnows, some small catfish, a few ornamental koi, and some other unseen denizens that we were sure lurked out in the reeds. These fish had come to rely on the local residents to provide them with food. You could tell this because whenever you walked up to the edge of the pond, all of the fish feverishly swam over to where you were and stared upwards, waiting patiently. In our version of fishing, we would bring along a few pieces of bread and we would pick up a couple of long flexible branches that we kept hidden out by the pond. We would then place a piece of wadded-up bread on the end of each branch and then dip the ends of our "fishing poles" into the water. Within seconds the fish all moved toward our bait and devoured every morsel. We loved watching the fish try to outsmart each other to get the bits and pieces of bread that floated about. My daughter always giggled when she felt the fish nibbles transmitted up along her branch to her hands. We always made sure that we set aside a bit of the bread to feed the fish that seemed too afraid to come up to us. We then made a game of tossing little bread balls out to them while trying to avoid the other fish. A new twist on an old pastime. Andy and Opie had nothing on us.
