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Fishing Freshwater Flats
July 2021 This summer I took a great trip to the waters of Waugoshance Island on Lake Michigan near the Straits of Mackinac. I was with my oldest son, Will, and our friend and local guide, Ethan Winchester, of Boyne Outfitters. We were trying something new—freshwater flats fishing for smallmouth bass. This little excursion was made possible…
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Only 178 Miles to Bermuda
Lovely Stars Knocks The Pain Out Of Your Arse Tuesday June 14 0100 watch 178 miles from our destination Just a few clouds interspersed among an amazing display of stars. The Big Dipper is close to the horizon to the north almost touching the horizon. The winds are light and variable out of the WNW. Our weather…
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Finding Love
(This is a short remembrance I wrote for the 50th Anniversary of Spring Sing in the Spring of 2007.) I should start this tale with “once upon a time,” for who could have ever dreamed up such places and the incredible cast of remarkable characters and memories that are Spring Sing? Just think of all…
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Remembering Edna Snyder
(Delivered at Edna Snyders’s memorial service, November 29, 2014) Our pastor at Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church, Dr. Randall Tremba, told me that Edna Snyder, our oldest member, had asked if I would sing at her memorial service. I want you all to know that I sang for her last night and you have been spared. Frankly, it…
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Soundings: The Back Story
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch [or to fish]—we are going back from whence we came.— with apologies to John F. Kennedy The only thing better than owning a boat is having a great friend who owns a boat. This week,…
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Father Forgets
As the father of two boys, I may have read this short piece too late, but it is not too late to share it with them. Father Forgets written by W. Livingston Larned condensed as in “Readers Digest” Download original Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under…
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To Woody Geist
(A short eulogy written for my father-in-law, read at his memorial service in Rochester, Michigan, March 22, 2010) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Woody’s life was a song. He came in singing. He left us singing.…
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Haunted by Waters
My last submission to the Good News Paper was a memorial tribute to a local legend, Ben Schley. Ever his disciple, I am still not sure if Ben was a fisherman who wrote or a writer who fished. I know many miss his nature articles which graced these pages and many other fine publications. Ben…
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A Fisher of Men
A Fisher of Men A Tribute to Ben Schley by Bill Howard as printed in the Summer 1996 Issue of the Shepherdstown Good News Paper Rivers, he told me, are living things, treasures to love and cherish…the very life blood of our earth. But like all living things they must be cared for and defended.…
A place to tie it all together