Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-04-03
UnforgOtten Days
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Do grown men of to-day ever forget
the Joys of their boyhood? One OF the
most pitiful things in life Is the fact
that as we grow older we are COM
PEELED to constantly look back on days
that were happier than those that
are, and to look forward with dis
belief that happier days are to come.
And what will the man grown from
the boy of to-day look back upon in
this unhappy knowledge that all men
gain? Will he, patriarchal Of beard
and surrounded by his up-to-date
family, regret the happy times when
he was a youns fellow and slid seven
times down the chute, or that red letter
day wherein he attended two perform
ances of the summer theater, or that
wonderful auto ride he took in the
'Gadsbys hundred horsepower smash
er? G. &
This is all in the future. The man
of to-day, forced as he is into lines of
living, often foreign to his views and
tnclinations, has not progressed far
enough into the future of things to
break away from memory of the
simple pleasures of his boyhood.
The simple English words "sun-
perch, "green apples" and "cheek"
have meaning to him that younger
generation does not and cannot share
or appreciate. Just the word "sun-
perch" calls to his mind thousand
things he gloats over.
He remembers how he sneaked
away one afternoon with fishing line
carefully wound around a stick, pos
sessing marvellous red and green
cork and blue steel hook that other
boys had offered fabulous sums to
possess. The line was of real "sea
island cotton, SO the grocer said, and
cost 10 cents-twice as much as
other lines.
In one hand he CARED a battered
tomato can half filled with a squirm-
ing mass of pinky-brown worms COW
cred with earth. These he secured in
worm mine known only to himself
and his chum, corner of the stable
lot-a mine that was inexhaustible
even where others went dry of pro.
duct. a.
He remembers how queer the creek
bank smelt and smilingly recognizes
1t as malarial in the knowledge that
has come to him later.
There was tall corn in great field
along the creek, running in diagonal
rows to join mass of head-tall weeds
at the creek bank, and he followed the
rows, stumbling over the clods-in q
hurry of course, for the fish were there
and a boy could scarcely wait until
he had thrown in baited hook Un-
less he hurried there would be time
lost at fishing.
And there was the rock-THE rock
Down below it he could peer through
the water and see the faint brown
outlines of fish-real fish, looking like
shadows as they winnowed the watel
with softly-moving fins and tails.
Overhead were the great trees thai
shaded the poor, their naked roots
worn slippery by small boys in swim
ming and reputed to be the abiding
place of water rats.
Then with trembling hands he
baited his hook with squirming
Shiny worm and unrolled the line, at
taching it to a pole cut from the
thicket
Then, remembering this, the grown
man signs, smiles rather pitifully anc
takes up the work and labors of to
day, for the days of fishing for sun
perch are over with him, his boy
would rather see a football game o.
take girls out for an auto drive-but h,
never forgets that old cheek, and tn,
old rock and the corn-stalks and tn,
reputed water rats-they are like oil
friends and old friends can not be for
gotten.-Galveston News.