Last week my daughter came home from school so excited she had a hard time formulating complete sentences.
Fortunately on this day her excitement was wonderful. She had been on a field trip with her 5th grade glass to
I remembered signing a permission slip for the event, but all I was told was she would be getting "aquatic education" and it wasn’t a swimming party. I don’t recall much else about it.
Bits and pieces of the story are probably still sticking to the ceiling of our home because it all came out so rapidly and in haphazard fashion. I was able to determine there was a fairly extensive setup about fish, fishing, and all manner of aquatic life in our
"How on Earth did a chatterbox like you calm down to the required level of focus to engage in something as tedious as tying a fly?” I recall thinking.
Then she arrived at the big announcement,
"The man who was showing me how to fly fish and his friends all know YOU!" she exclaimed in partial amazement. "They listen to your show and you interviewed him."
Turns out, as near as I can figure, she was getting a first hand lesson from Gary Chancey of the Kanawha Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited. She did not know his name, but described him only as, "the man who had two little feathers in his hat." I suppose that could be a lot of people, but for the purpose of the story–and this column I’ll assume it was
I had spoken to
"We brought them down and put them in the basket and it wasn’t a week before they started hatching," he said. "It’s unbelievable how much they enjoy it."
It was plenty believable when my daughter told it. She was on cloud nine. Soft spoken
"I love children," he told me. "And I love what they’re doing to fishing."
One by one on the West Teays adventure
Folks like Gary, and the rest of the volunteers helping that day, should be commended. We should all take the time, whether with our own children or somebody else’s, to pass on the sportsman’s tradition and ethic. The kids are open buckets waiting to be filed with wonderment and knowledge and as in the case of my daughter–her bucket was overflowing by the end of the day. Gary, and all the guys at KVTU, should have another feather I their hat.