It Was Dad’s Day - by Skippy

Dad was an over-the-road truck driver, and was until his retirement. His time with his children was seldom as long as he wished. We always made several yearly trips to Long Beach, NC where my grandparents lived. My grandfather helped make our short time there as memorable as he could. Later, Granpa was instrumental in creating the fishing desire that still sits somewhere deep in my soul.

Several times we fished from the old piers at Fort Caswell. Fort Caswell sits on the mouth of the Cape Fear river and was a Confederate fort during the Civil War. It was again used as a military post during WWII. Once we hit gold, and were able to pull in large black drum for about a week during 1959. Well, the fish weren’t the best of prey…but the time and memories are priceless.



That’s me, the little guy on the left.

Fast forward a few decades, Dad & Mom now live in Raleigh NC. They have had a good life. There are grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Dad was made NC Truck Driver of the year in 1996 with well over a million accident free miles. He now struggles with some mobility issues.

My wife and I have a house on Hyco Lake in NC. With some convincing, Dad agreed to go fishing with me last week. We went crappie fishing (what else ?). We did pretty well. As best I recall we put 75-80 in the boat, and kept a fraction of those.

The pictures are different, but the feelings are still the same. These memories will be of Dad, and not so much of the fish.





“Skippy”