A Poem For Our Readers....

  Still paddling float fishermen on the rivers of the Ozarks, Uncle Norten Dablemont (center of photo) guides the boat while fisherman Dennis Whiteside admires a bass taken on a topwater lure during the heat of midday in August.
At right -- Summer beauty -- This long-ear sunfish, which many anglers call a "punkinseed is bright orange during the summer months with brilliant irridescent blue streaks around the head. They spawn over a period of two months in the ozark rivers. Apparently this one was a little hungrier than most. He thought he could eat a lure bigger than he was. These sunfish seldom reach weights of a half pound. But, a mess of larger ones, fried whole, makes a mouthful or two of great eating.

----“The heat we’ve been a havin’ ain’t necessarily pleasin’, but there ain’t no snow in the tomato patch, and there ain’t nobody freezin’. It's only in the 90’s, and the fishin’s fairly good, so I figure summer’s goin’ pretty much the way it should.
 
The squirrels are workin' the hick’ries, and somewhere’s it’s a rainin’, so I’ll wait 'til we get our share, and you won’t hear me complainin’. Life is great on this old farm, and I ain’t a gonna whine, cause as long as I can catch some fish, then things is goin’ fine.

Ma’s cannin’ is nigh over, ‘til the apples come to ripen, I can’t figure why that woman’s always sittin’ ‘round and gripin’. I’d take her out a fishin', if she’d promise to be quite, but when she’s rantin’ and a rarin’ I can’t get the fish to bite.
 
So if your lookin’ for some good advice, I’m just the man to give it… I say summer
won’t be wasted, ‘less you just forget to live it. There’s a sunset that’s worth seein’ and the sky is full of stars, there’s the sound of water flowin’ over river gravel bars.

There’s fireflies o’er the meadows, summer flowers here and there, and I can hear a bullfrog beller, and a hoot owl off somewhere. When tomorrow comes a dawnin’ its likely to be hot, but I can say that even if it is, I druther see it… than not.
 
There’s cooler days a comin’, us old-timers can remember, but let’s waste no days of August whilst we’re waitin’ on September. If your pinin’ for a better time, just listen when I say, it may be all we got, so just enjoy today. God sends us autumn’s beauty, He sends the springtime dew, He made the birds, He made the bugs, and He made August too.”-------------

Well, I know that poetry is not often seen in outdoor columns, but I thought some of you readers might like that one. Do you know who wrote the above poem? He wrote lots of poetry years ago. If you can name him, just the answer to me on a post card, and we’ll put all the correct answers in a bucket, and when we have our Grizzled Old Outdoor Veteran’s Swap Meet, we will draw out one of those postcards and give someone a really nice prize of some sort. It will be a surprise prize, so to speak, but something a grizzled old outdoor veteran or outdoor lady will be happy with.

So I guess this is as good a time as any to announce the whereabouts and whenabouts of that get-together which was so well received last fall. We will hold it in the big activities building, at the Brighton Assembly of God church, just off of Highway 13 between Springfield and Bolivar. We’ll fix up a map for those who want to attend. This year we will limit the swapper’s tables to 50, and have a big fish fry dinner just like we had last year. It will take place the 9th of October, from 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. It is a beautiful big church with plenty of room, and a separate coffee room where folks can sit around and drink coffee and relax and talk. This year we are going to pay special tribute to the World War II veterans who attend, setting aside a special room for them to get together, with name tags made for them, so all the people who come can know who they are.

Of course, if you want to reserve a table, you should do it between August 20 and September 20. I will be gone to Canada until August 20, working on a book about old time Canadian guide and bush pilot Tinker Helseth. So don’t worry about getting a table until then, when I return. If you want to sell outdoor paraphernalia, old lures and gear, old camping stuff, anything that pertains to the outdoors, this is a great place to do it. And we hope to have ladies bringing canned goods, jellies, and baked goods to sell as well.

Last year’s swap meet was a great time, and this one will be too. Put it on your calendar, and I’ll say more about it when I get back from Canada.

We are going to have some October interpretive float trips, like we have had in past years. Dates aren’t set for those, but if you want to go on one of those trips on the Niangua River, we will take about 18 to 20 people at a time, with guides who are Ozark natives, and naturalists. One of them will be my 86-year-old uncle, Norten Dablemont, who guided his first river fishermen in 1934. How long ago was that? He has been guiding fishermen ever since, and if you want to arrange a float fishing trip with him, you can contact me about that too.

Norten has had a group of regular clients over the years who have passed on, one by one, so now he is available more often than he was years back. Does anyone know a guide in his mid-eighties who can paddle two fishermen upstream (you heard that right, upstream) for several miles on a fishing trip, and then back, all day long?

Lightnin’ Ridge Books will also be publishing a new book for one of the nation’s best Outdoor Writers, Jim Spencer. Hopefully it will be done by the time our swap meet is held in October and Jim will be there autographing it for readers. It is a turkey hunting book which he titles “Bad Birds”. Any turkey hunter anywhere is going to love this book. Spencer is not only a great writer, but one of the best turkey hunters I ever met. He has enough experiences with old gobblers in a dozen different states to write several books.

And before we end this, I need help from any of our catfishing readers. At Cabool Missouri on Saturday, September 18, the senior citizens center will hold a fish fry for area elderly people, including a number of war veterans. They would like to enlist our help, needing about 75 pounds of catfish for 150 people. This is a great opportunity to help others, and I intend to donate my limit of catfish. If you can donate 5 pounds, then it would only take about 15 of us to allow some elderly people to have a great afternoon. Just freeze it, and call me after August 20th.

Remember I am still looking for someone who might like to do part time work for our publishing company, distributing outdoor books and the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Magazine, and dealing with advertisers in the magazine. It involves occasional travel, and I need an outgoing person who likes to meet people, and loves the outdoors.

Check my website for more information about all these things over the next few weeks, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. The e-mail address is lightninridge@windstream.net.