Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 6, 1993 TAG: 9306060039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So I'd get around it by writting about "the boy," and when he no longer was a boy, he became "my companion" or "my partner" in many pieces.
Names haven't been the only thing to change. Positions have changed as well.
For a good many years, I was the leader. I was the first up the side of the mountain, glancing over my shoulder from time to time to make certain I was going fast enough to make the outing tough, but not so tough that it would be discouraging. I was the one who decided where to go, how long to stay, what gun or rod to take. He was 6, then 8, then 10, then 12, then 14. Then a man.
I'm not certain when the roles reversed, but one day he was in the lead, calling the shots. He was the guide. It wasn't anything we sat down and discussed. I didn't one day say, "You go first, son." He didn't say, "Move aside, old fellow." It just happened. Life was making one of those sharp bends that turns into a circle.
I remember how it occurred with my dad. We were backpacking in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness. We had hiked along the South Fork of the Flathead River all day, bearing heavy Army-surplus packs that towered above us and cut into our shoulders. Toward the end of the day, when we were anxious to set up camp and cast for cutthroat trout, he said, "You go ahead. I'll be along."
I know now what I didn't then, that he had pain in his back, his legs ached and his wind was starting to come hard.
I remember that I wasn't anxious to run ahead at that point. I was beat, too. But I eased past him on the trail, and suddenly I was the guy in the lead, the one who would decide where we would peg our tent, the fellow who chanced being first to encounter a grizzly bear.
Nobody wants to relinquish leadership status. I know there are days now that I long to glance over my shoulder and see a youngster tagging behind. I especially think about that around National Fishing Week, which begins Monday with the theme "Take a Kid Fishing." That is exceptionally good advice because if you take a kid fishing now, he may take you fishing sometime down the line.
There is considerable satisfaction in being a follower, if your leader is the 6-year-old you took trout fishing, the 12-year-old you took hunting. If he is strong and confident and knowledgeable afield. If he makes the right decisions. If he hears the turkey first, knows exactly were the big buck is leaving scrapes and can find the pool that holds the trophy trout.
Sometimes I ponder all this, but mostly I'm just trying to keep up. I do know it happened awfully fast - too fast, really.
It takes some getting used to, but now when we get to where we are going, he'll suggest to me where to take a stand or where to cast. It will be the best spot, too. Without making it evident, he'll take second choice. I can remember doing that.
After a while, he'll check back on me. I'll be there waiting for a 10-year-old proud of the trout he's caught or a 15-year-old excited about spotting a buck. But I'll be seeing a man coming through the woods who is a trifle disappointed that I have nothing to show for my time.
There still are a few things that an old fellow knows and a young one doesn't. Not yet, anyway. And that's the fact that my joy, my success, is simply the joy of being there and having someone to share it all.
Maybe there should be a "Take a Grown-up Fishing Day."
by CNB