My favorite vacation memory is of the week I spent at Aunt Thelma’s farm, close to Mt Vernon, WA. We had a family reunion at the same time – must have been close to a hundred people at Aunt Thelma’s house. Several of us younger kids (I was about 8 years old) got the bright idea to go fishing.  We all had to find our own  fishing poles, which we scrounged up from the barn, and we had all taken part in a group dig for night crawlers, too. The worms we found were stuffed into an old can, and we were ready to head out.

We  walked for about a mile on a little path through the woods to a small creek. After about an hour of tangled line, hooks stuck in trees and lost bait, I was the only one who caught a fish! Me – the youngest of the bunch and a city slicker at that! Of course the fish was only about 6 inches long, but I was so happy and proud.

Eventually we wandered back to the house where I had the temerity to ask Aunt Thelma, who was in the midst of organizing a huge picnic lunch for the reunion, “Would you cook my fish, please?” And she did. She fried it up and put it on a plate with some potato salad and baked beans. She also  made a place for me at the kitchen table, which I recall being crammed with desserts for the  picnic;  there I got  to sit and enjoy the ‘catch of the day’. It was a very happy moment, and remains a wonderful memory.

Thanks, Aunt Thelma!