Gov’t actions Monday 08-06-07

There is no doubt a person can make a mistake. Put a lot of people together as government workers and they make a lot of mistakes. The U.S. Corp of Engineers made a terrible mistake when they {the government} dredged out Beouf River and Big Creek.

Now they are just big long ditches whereas before cleaning them out and cutting out some curves both were real good fishing sites. In Beouf River a person could always get a mess of fish some way. An example is when a local veteran returned from World War Two. Brother Ratcliff our pastor asked him what he wanted more than anything to eat. He replied that he wanted some fish. Brother Ratcliff told me to go get T.J. and Willie Mac Martin that Elbert wanted a fish supper. We went to the river and T.J. said “there is a big log in that bend of the river with a big hollow and if my guess is right a 15 or 20 pound catfish is in it. Standing on the log the water was chin deep to me. T.J. told Willie Mac to give him the hook. Their Dad had made them a large hood to hook in a big blue Catfish because they had teeth whereas a yellow or Tabby Cat just had a hard ridge instead of teeth and you could get them with your hand. Some one had taken the hook out of the sack they carried with fishing stuff in it and all the cussing took place. They had forgotten the preacher was up on the river bank listen to all the cussing and blaming going on. T.J. finally said he was going down and to get the fish anyway. Willie Mac and I told him that this fish would eat his hand off but he was going after it any way. Mac stopped up a split on top of the log and I went down and pushed the fish up on T.J. We were about three feet from the bank but to “T” it must have seemed like a mile, all the cussing took place. I am drowning help me “T” would say, when we got close He would yell, “get back you will make me drown”. This went for awhile and finally He got the arm without the fish grabbed the arm with the fish and threw the fish up on the bank cussing all the time until he realized the Preacher was laughing and slapping his leg with his hat. He started apologizing but the preacher said He would pray for his forgiveness because of the shape his one time good hand was in. The Catfish peeled most of the skin off His hand.

Now if you catch a fish from the river he is full of every kind of stuff either sprayed or put under the soil by Farmers who have to make a living. The water has no current except when it floods from a rain and then it’s full of all kinds of debris. But like the politician said that ran on the platform of getting the rivers and creeks cleaned and deepened the flood water still might come up but it will run off fast. The older folk told Him He was wrong they wanted the water to stay up over their land so they could use that rich soil the water deposited while it was over their land for a week or so.