Thread by thread, stitching it together...

There is at least a little part of me that likes fishing.

When I was a child, I did enjoy fishing. My Paw would take me and my cousin down to this little stream called "Dawses Creek" ( no idea on the spelling, so I went phonetic here) and we'd go brim fishing.

We would get up early, like 4 am and head out in Paw's pickup truck. Me and my cousin would be settled on the seat between Maw and Paw. We'd head to Hardee's, pick up a box of fried chicken and biscuits and we'd get some cooler of ice with sodas in it and head to the creek. It was a decently long drive. I have no idea where this stream was. 

We would get to it, a stream under a small bridge and we'd park on the side of the road and walk down to it. Down near the bridge, there was a flat, level bank where we'd set up camp. We'd set out folding chairs and our cooler and a blanket and food. We'd have some chicken and start fishing.

We used cane polls there. Paw would help us get our hooks all baited... a stop at a bait store had happened on the way... and we'd put our wiggly worms on the hooks and set our lines. Then we'd wait and talk and giggle and have a good time. We'd catch tiny brim and string them on a line... 

As I got older, this scene would change. 

We'd set out in Maw's van rather than Paw's pickup as it had more room. Our simple box of fried chicken would become a larger picnic and our few sodas would turn into a whole "mess" of sodas as my Maw would have said. We'd sit there and fish, splash around in the creek, and mostly throw our brim back as soon as we caught them. We just came to have fun. It was fantastic fun at that. Sometimes more of the family would come with us... but the best times were just me and my cousin, C, and Maw and Paw. 

I don't remember when we stopped going to Dawses Creek. We did start going to another fishing hole after a while however. Fowler's Pond. 

The Fowlers were family to us. I don't remember how. I recall my cousin Gayla was mom's cousin somehow... and there were a whole family of Fowlers that were cousins to me. Gobie was the old man who owned the pond and the bait and tackle and feed store. Gayla was his daughter I think. She had brothers, Bill and Gary. Gayla was married to Wayne or Dewayne. I can't recall which his name was... but this is a step up. Gayla came up in conversation with my mother-in-law last week (who apparently went to school with Gayla) and I, at the time, had not been able to recall Gayla's husband's name at all. So being stuck between two variants of the same name and certain it's one of them is a step up. I wonder if MiL can clear this up if I mention it now.

Gayla had two children: Lindsey and Ryan.

Lindsey was the sweetest, most gorgeous girl you could dream of. She was my ROLE model as a young child. She was just the most awesome thing that would possibly ever exist on two legs. 

I remember ... she got pregnant in her senior year of highschool. And suddenly... I was discouraged from looking up to her as I did. It was so sad. My family crushed my vision of her. They assured me she'd done something just... awful. ...

Poor Lindsey. She deserved better than that. She really was the sweetest girl. And I grew to realize they had been soo wrong... but by then I'd long since lost track of her.

Ryan was likewise the most awesome cousin. He was really sweet to me and even for a boy, sooo nice a cousin. He would play with me even tho he was several years older and he wasn't mean to me like my other cousin was. I loved him much. He and Lindsey had this wickedly awesome dark complexion that always made me wonder why they looked so different. Thinking back, I'd say... Black Dutch or some such? I wish I knew. They just had this awesome complexion that ran in the family somewhere over on that side.

I recall that they each had a really dark birthmark too. Something that stood out. It was almost black. 

And now I'm thinking... this connects to someone I was remembering the other day. 

Nauvaree... YES... she was married to Gobie Fowler... and now I realize why I couldn't remember her husband's name. I hadn't realized Gobie and Nauvaree were connected. So now I remember how that whole side of the family is connected too! They were married to my Paw's sister. 

I feel great... this is such a memory for me to record. 

Let's see...

I don't remember much of what happened to Bill. But Gary killed himself due to PTSD. 

I remember when that happened. I went to the funeral. I was too young to understand he killed himself or that it was because he'd just seen too much in the war. I thought someone had shot him. 

And all of this made me remember ... more people on that side.

There were a pair of twins. 

They were younger than me by a good bit.

Kylie and ... Jordan.  yes. They were adorable. Same dark complexion, natural blonde hair and really intensely dark eyebrows that defined their eyes so amazingly. They could have been child actors or some such. They were just so gorgeous. They were a bit older than my little sister but young. They later had a third sister... Summer. I didn't get to know her as well. She was very young when I was still around the family.

I didn't know their mother that well but they were somehow connected on that side.

Or to the Wilson's. My mother's sister's husband's family. I hate having to find a way to describe connections of that type. "My uncle's family" would work, I guess... But is less descriptive. Still... "mother's sister's husband's family" sounds so redneck. Geh. -_- I swear I'm not a hick. I just came from a hick family.

So now I remember that I also had a great aunt Gertrude on my Paw's side.

And Mama Wise's surname was Daniel, I'm quite sure because I had a "Granny Daniel" mentioned to me, dead before I was old enough to remember... she was Mama Wise's mama. 

And now I'm quite sure that James was my Grandma's brother and a Knight. 

Paw was also the youngest of his siblings. 

And all of this... without even delving into my dad's side. Not that I'm eager to do that.

At least I remembered those missing links I'd forgotten.