the exhibitionist

From my early teens, I always enjoyed fishing, and at one time I was very energetic and used a lot of that energy in trying to catch fish. I was about to reach my mid-forties and I had become lazy. I had found a fishing dock on a lake where I could set leisurely in a chair while fishing and I went there very often to fish from sundown to sun up when the weather was comfortably warm.

There was only one streetlight on the parking lot so the fishing dock was dark and fishermen would bring their Coleman lanterns to light up their selected fishing area. The dock attracted all kinds of characters who came to fish and I enjoyed stopping by and talking to these interesting men and women; in fact visiting with these people was as or even more enjoyable than actually catching fish!

The area was normally very crowded most of the time between sundown and mid-night when folk began to leave. By 1:00 am there would be probably no more than four people remaining and often they would have left within an hour or so if the fish were not biting. After everyone had gone, it would be very quiet when I would relish the solitude for the remainder of the early hours of the morning; I so enjoyed being out of doors on my own.

Deer and other animals would come from the woods and down to the lake for water. As for me, I was one of those unusual fishermen who really did not care if I made a catch or not; often I would reel in my lines and set back and just watch the wildlife.