Yesterday when I blogged about The CATCH For Linda Lou's Seafood In Wichita Falls I made mention of the fact my dad once caught a really big halibut, and that I would see if I could find photo documentation of that big catch. Which I proceeded to do. Which is what you see above.
I do not remember what newspaper the above article was in. Most likely the Bellingham Herald or Lynden Tribune. Or, maybe, the Skagit Valley Herald.
Whatever newspaper, the article has an error or two. It has my dad being from Mount Vernon.
No.
Mom and dad were living in Burlington when that big fish was caught, and had been in that Skagit town for years.
The article has my dad being a former Lynden resident. I don't think dad ever lived in Lynden. Nooksack and Sumas would be more accurate. Dad was a Nooksack High School basketball star, which is how he first came to mom's attention, as she cheered for her Lynden High School basketball team playing Nooksack.
Eventually my dad's mom moved to Lynden, one block from my mom's mom. Making it easy to go from one grandma to the other whilst visiting Lynden.
The article mentions my dad catching the halibut with a 35 year old pole made by the late Cornie Slotemaker of Lynden.
Cornie was my dad's dad. Also known as my grandpa. He died before I was born. It is only in this article I have seen my grandpa called Cornie. His name was Cornelius. This was supposed to be my name. The family convention, going back to generations in Holland, was the eldest son of the eldest son rotated the name John (Jan in Dutch) and Cornelius.
But mom and dad were totally Americanized by the time I was born and so rebelled at naming their eldest son Cornelius. And then I further disrupted the family convention by refusing to reproduce, and thus having no son to name John. As a further example of my mom and dad's rebelliousness, they named their second born son John. It's a wonder we were not ostracized from the greater Jones clan.
This article also has Cornie living in Lynden. Maybe he did. But I don't think so. Grandpa Cornie's mom, my great grandma Tillie, did live in Lynden, when I knew her.
Standing with my mom and dad and the halibut is the pseudo grandpa I knew as Mr. Lee. As in Lee Huntley, my mom's mom's third husband. I liked Mr. Lee. For my little sister, Michele, Mr. Lee was the only grandpa she ever knew.
And since we have been talking about my grandpa Cornie, I found a photo of him with a big fish too.
That is a sturgeon, caught in the Nooksack River. Grandpa Cornie was a super fisherman. He passed on his fishing skills to my dad. And then the fishing skills skipped a generation til my Favorite Nephew Joey inherited it.
I believe Joey also now has that fishing pole his great grandpa Cornie made a long long time ago.
I suspect Joey will be passing the fishing skills thing on to Hank Frank. The process may already have begun...
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