Raising kids.

[Ralph]

You never know what simple childhood experiences will evolve into life shaping events. This is a picture of me at 8 years old. I caught these bass on balsa poppers as I fished draped over an inner tube wearing a mask and fins and kicked around the farm pond until I spied a victim. My parents were the best. They encouraged my adventures without smothering me with advise. I don't know how to do better than that.

[Larry S]

Ralph,
Great post. I'm sure I have 20+ years on you; but times were much simpler and more innocent then.
What great childhoods we had; didn't know it then. In many cases today, we have too much parental
involvement. Down with Little League. Up with "do it yourself."
Best,
Larry S

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I was born in 1945 and back then we played with "dirt, sticks and rocks"........

We dug holes and trenches....made rafts down at Elder Creek.........had tree houses.........had a paper route.

We could leave all day in the summer on our bikes and ride out into the country with our fishing poles and BB guns.

We were very lucky.......

.

[Troutstalker55B]

Spot on Ralph! It was my parents who opened up some amazing doors for myself letting me take life full on and experience it at an early age. From my mom supporting my snowboarding in the late 70's to my Dad and his deep roots with fly fishing has left me with two things that will always be with me for the rest of my life. The good old days of my youth when I could take off on my bike and roam through Paradise where ever I wanted with one rule, "Be home by dark!".

It's Bill's post that hits home the most. The picture he painted with words describes Paradise and my childhood, growing up in a small nor cal town with the west branch Feather River running close by was really fun. Thanks for all the insight guys, I'd like to hear more from others.


Brown trout taken from the West Branch Feather River, 7 years old.

[k.hanley]

Right on Ralph, Bill, and Jon! Legacy counts. Legacy can simply be that mindset "that exploring is a grand adventure in life." I ate that up as a kid. Still do as a big kid.

I have great memories of chasing rabbits in the fields of Redwood City off 101. We had amazing adventures into the saltflats around the bay. Biking into the woodside hills was like taking a trip into the forests of imagination. "Discovering" the streams of our Bay Area hill country was true adventure.

What a gift it is to share this passion with others (especially our youth).

By the way....what are you guys gonna do when you grow up? Me? I decided to just stay as a kid.
Cheers, Kenny

[Loomis 1]

All of us from the AARP age have great memories of being Huck Finn". Unfortunately in the age of urbanization most kids will never understand the thrill of being the young explorer. My 1st pole was a stick and a string, packing it to the canal with a can of worms dug up from the garden. My 17 y/o son will have memories of spending three summers at The Fly Shop's fish camp, spending this Thanksgiving in the marshes of Louisiana with Capt. Dini, next summer in LaPaz on a JM trip, and complaining that he never gets to do anything when dad leaves him home on a Brazil trip next fall. At 17 my x-mas list was a new Plano tackle box, some hooks and sinkers. My son's list includes a New 9wt NRX with a matching Abel reel, along with as many new x-box games as mom and dad will buy. Do I spoil my kid rotten? YEP. Is his childhood memories better than dad's? Nope!

[Frank R. Pisciotta]

I was born in 1945 and back then we played with "dirt, sticks and rocks"........

We were very lucky.......

.

Bill----And may I add, still are.

I don't want to get too maudlin here but we all have these wonderful memories of our innocent youth.

I'm a "born & raised" City-kid; living, at the time in SF's Italian neighborhood, North Beach. My family had a summer cabin in western Marin county in Woodacre. My entire summer was spent there; having arrived there the day after school ended in late May or early June and returned back to SF a day before school began in early September. Coming back to fog was in fact a shock having worn shorts the entire time in the "country". I never experienced a summer in SF until I was 15. I had the best of both worlds, which has undoubtedly formed my Psyche.

No images here because I was a solitary angler, starting at 6 years old, plying my obsession of fishing using worms, crickets, grasshoppers and "Balls of Fire". I fished a tributary of Laginitas Creek (aka...Papermill Creek); which was near our back yard. Unbeknownst to me at the time I was slaughtering Coho salmon and steelhead smolts. I knew no better.

I remember those idylliic times; riding my bike on the dirt, gravel & hot asphalt roads (leaving tracks), climbing trees, shooting my bean-shooter and firing my "Daisey" BB gun at anything that moved...and most especially fishing.

Yes indeed, fun times...and it continues. For sure we are lucky people.

Frankie da kid Pisciotta

[Frank R. Pisciotta]

I was born in 1945 and back then we played with "dirt, sticks and rocks"........

We were very lucky.......

.

Bill----And may I add, still are.

I don't want to get too maudlin here but we all have these wonderful memories of our innocent youth.

I'm a "born & raised" City-kid; living, at the time in SF's Italian neighborhood, North Beach. My family had a summer cabin in western Marin county in Woodacre. My entire summer was spent there; having arrived there the day after school ended in late May or early June and returned back to SF a day before school began in early September. Coming back to fog was in fact a shock having worn shorts the entire time in the "country". I never experienced a summer in SF until I was 15. I had the best of both worlds, which has undoubtedly formed my Psyche.

No images here because I was a solitary angler, starting at 6 years old, plying my obsession of fishing using worms, crickets, grasshoppers and "Balls of Fire". I fished a tributary of Laginitas Creek (aka...Papermill Creek); which was near our back yard. Unbeknownst to me at the time I was slaughtering Coho salmon and steelhead smolts. I know no better.

I remember those idyllic times; riding my bike on the dirt, loose gravel & hot asphalt roads (making deep tracks), climbing trees, shooting my bean-shooter and firing my "Daisey" BB gun at anything that moved...and most especially fishing.

Yes indeed...fun times...and it continues. For sure we are lucky people.

Frank R. Pisciotta

[BillB]

I'll bite too! I was also an urban kid growing up in Dallas. Believe it or not, there were (don't know if there still are) many creeks that permeated the "Big D". We would roam (explore) all day, cook a can of chili or barbeque beef (yep from a can) if we took time for lunch. There was also White Rock Lake where we spent many an hour. My last expedition on that lake was with an old 7.5 Evenrude with a clutch knob on the top of the cowling. Two days later I left my fellow explorers and moved, in culture shock, to the San Joaquin valley!

[John Sv]

My father has always put a focus on getting us kids outdoors and exploring. He put fishing rods in our hands by the time we were 3 or 4; fly rods and fly tying came before age ten. Now I have a 1 year old son and am waiting to introduce him to fishing and bike riding, with the hopes that it also brings him the happiness that it has brought me.

Slightly off topic, but along the same lines of passion for the sport... I live within walking distance to Prosser Reservoir. I'm a little under the weather and was digging through fishing crap. I found a 10 wt shooting head spooled up that I haven't fished in a decade. Wondered how it cast. So I grabbed a rod my dad gave me- a late 60's FF108 that was willed to him by Art Rathbun, a man that I think a lot of you know as he was a fixture in this region's fishing scene. Anyway I'm standing in the yard thinking this is dumb, I live right next to a trout-filled body of water; why don't I at least wet the line while seeing how it casts... Tied on a black wooly bugger and bang! Had a nice 'bow. Made for a nice day! Thanks Dad, thanks Mr. Rathbun.