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a very good day indeed! We even decided to let everyone off the next day - Christmas!

But it dawned on us that we had not even done any Christmas shopping for each other. We wondered if anything would still be open at 7:00 P.M. On Christmas Eve. There were no Walmarts or K Marts in those days. We drove uptown and found two stores open - a pawn shop and a drug store. In the drug store we got a box of face powder for my mother and some Old Spice shaving lotion for my step father. Then we went to the pawn shop and we purchased the very first fishing rod and reel that I ever owned.

The next day, Christmas Sunday, was cold and blustery with a threat of rain. But I was so anxious to try out my rod and reel that my folks got up early and we went to the nearby Trout River and rented a row boat. The only bait we had was the single shiny minnow lure that we had purchased with the rod combo.

There was not a chance in the world that we would catch a fish. But my folks were giving me the gift of my first fishing experience and it was memorable. We almost froze during the two hours that we hoped for a fish to strike, but nothing happened. Nothing, that is, until a hungry pelican saw what he thought was to be his Christmas dinner and swooped down to ingest my pretty shiny lure.

For several minutes we tried desperately to disengage the grapple hook from the jaws of the frantic bird. His large wings beat against our attempts to be charitable. Finally, we were able to hold him still long enough to remove the hook, and the bird flew away with many angry bird - words of insults and cursing.

We caught no fish that Christmas but it was the beginning of a life time of fishing enjoyment for me. And even more important it reflected how much enjoyment family love can create even amid meager resources. On that Christmas day we saw the birth of a memory that is still alive sixty years later - alive with the glow of love and joy and the sense of how very little of the world's goods it really takes to produce a Happy Christmas.

Learn more about this author, Donald Hancock.
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