The "Fishin' For Worms" Story

Foreward:  My story today came about as I was on my way home from my oldest son's house after dropping off all my old fishing gear.  While driving in the car along Rt. 283 I started thinking about all the memories those rods and tackle boxes held during my life as a child, teenager and parent.  Memories that I will never forget and will cherish forever.

It was an ordinary day.  Walking around my friend Dave's sideyard on West Liberty St. with a flashlight and a tin can.  If my mom knew I was doing this she wouldn't leave me out of the house for months.  You see, she didn't like Dave, since he always seemed to be in trouble and at times would make me part of it.  Police cruiser pulled up in front of my house on North Queen Street one time and an officer ushered me onto the front porch.  My mom naturally took all this in from the front window of our house and when she opened the front door I knew I was in worse trouble than I already was in.  But, you see, I was innocent!  Really!!  Officer told her that friends Kenny, Dave and I were seen breaking windows in a parking lot on Christian Street which is a half-block to the east of our house.  I would never break windows around the neighborhood.  Some might have been broken, buy how could a couple of boys break them when all we were doing was playing "off the wall" baseball.  Anyway, Dave was the instigator in my mom's eyes 'cause he was the oldest and most sinister.  Plus, at one time he really did get in trouble for blowing the back off a gas station with some sort of explosive and stealing money from the place.  His granddad happened to find the same amount of missing money under his mattress while making the beds one morning.  Now how can anyone hide money under a mattress and not expect to get caught?  I think Dave must have been framed.  He did spend a couple of years at the Rotary home for wayward boys after that adventure.  

Well, tonight I'm only in his yard with my flashlight looking for worms.  Nightcrawlers to be exact.  Really!  I loved to go fishing and one of my favorite friends to fish with during high school was Dick.  Dick was older and had a really neat car and we would hop in it and head to the Safe Harbor Dam to the south-west of Lancaster, PA to go fishing.  Had a great time fishing and smoking.  Oh yeah, that also got me in trouble.  At least Dave wasn't to blame for that, since he didn't like to fish.  Catching night crawlers was pure skill.  You had to wait until after it rained and then, with your rusty can in tow, head to the nearest grassy spot.  Dave's side yard seemed to be the best spot, at least in my mind.  My mom often would ask me why I didn't look for the things in our back yard.  And, I truly don't know why I didn't look there, but I didn't.  After all, kids didn't have all the answers as to why they did certain things.  Getting back to catching worms …… after a rain, the slimy buggers would try to escape their flooded holes and sneak along the grass to a better hiding place.  If you would shine your flashlight directly on them they would drop into the closest hole they could find or slink back into their own hole, so you outwitted them and shined it off to the side of them and when they weren't suspecting it, you would wrap your fingers around them and pick them up.  

My youngest son learning how to bait a
hook with his night crawler. He seemed to enjo

At times, if they were still partially in a hole, you would have to slowly pull on them to extract them.   At times they would break in half and naturally all the guts would shoot out.  But, if you don't already know, they could regenerate another part to their body and be as good as new afterward.  Not sure how long that would take, but I believe I caught the other half of some of them months later.  After picking them from the ground you stuffed them in your rusty can which was filled with loose dirt.  Always took a screwdriver and punched holes in the dirt to give my newly caught nightcrawlers a place to hide until it was time for them to lure the fish from the water onto my hook.  Spent hours fishing when I was young.   Even hold the record for most fish caught in a week while on vacation along the Chesapeake Bay, according to my dad.  My bait of choice …….. naturally the nightcrawler.  And it worked so much better if it was from Dave's side yard.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.