It was sometime in 1942 or 43, and we were fishing at Rock Bluff on Red River. There was a pretty strong current although the water was quite clear. We were not catching anything, but just on the other side in Oklahoma, the fishermen over there were catching white bass quite often.

We were fishing with worms, but the white bass either were not interested, or they were congregated in the shallow water on the Oklahoma side of the river. It was both interesting and aggravating to see them catching fish and we were not.

Finally, up in the morning, perhaps 11:00, or so, they yelled that they were going to leave and if Dad wanted some of their bait, to cast his line across the river and they would attach a can to his line and put some of their bait in the can so we could begin catching bass too. (Now I must admit, I do not remember what their bait was, but guess they were fresh dead minnows, because we only had worms.)

Well, from the bank it was too far of a cast. Finally, Dad waded out into the river up to his waist and cast over but it was still a long distance, finally, going out as far as he could in the moving current, he tried to cast as hard and as far as he could.

What happened was the bamboo rod came apart and slipped out of the rod handle and slipped up the line momentarily, then the line parted and all the line and the rod disappeared into the river! Well, it ended the chance to get any bait from our friends across the river, but worse, it was the loss forever of Dad’s one and only bamboo rod. I must remind everyone that this was early in World War II and there was simply no tackle of any kind for sale. All such items were either discontinued or were re-directed to the war effort.

Talk about being ill. No one cried, but both of us were really shocked and disappointed with his loss of his best fishing rod. All that we had left were two old, steel fishing rods that were about 5 feet long and had permanent bends in them. We had to made out with these rods until the war was over and the manufacture and sales of fishing tackle began again.

People today in the current environment have not idea of what scarcity was like during the Second World War. Those things, like fishing tackle, were not available at any price, and you had to do without if you broke or lost what you had. After the war was over, Uncle Joe Samples, who had a small gas station in Idalou, Texas, sent my sister and me a sack full of Double Bubble Chewing Gum.

It was only then that we realized the war was over. However, due to our being used to rationing, we would never chew even one whole piece at a time. We would take a knife and cut one piece in half. That is all we would allow ourselves because we were used to having anything like that to being rationed and scarce. Just Sayin…RJS