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AUG Group Writing: Reelin’ In My Kids
It’s an interesting thing, raising my kids in the Keys. One has all the same worries as parents East (well, there really is no East), West, North and South (okay, there’s only a coupla miles of south): When my kids walk out the door, I am so worried. Are they going to be safe? Are they going to make good decisions? Are they going to (underage) drink? Are they going to (whatever age) drink and drive?
You do everything you can to drill “the right thing” into your kids, and then spend weekend evenings biting your nails and scarring your lower jowl with too much Copenhagen, hoping that they will, in fact, do the right thing. Worse, on the nights they go out, while they might screw up their own lives, I have to self embargo drinking. I mean, c’mon, does that even sound fair?
But, living down here, for as long as we have, I’ve been the lucky inheritor of the local culture. My kids love fishing. And sailing. And scuba diving. And snorkeling. Most of their peers had their “six-pack” boat captain’s licenses way before their driver’s licenses.
So, as a parent, I’m lucky enough(?) to be delivering the threat brief to one of my kids, and he or she will say, “Dad, we’re fishing tomorrow. So, while I’m spending the night at “Jennifer’s” house, we’ve got to be up at 0430, to begin to load the boat at 0500, so that we can make the tide right at zero six.”
I used to suspect that mebbe my kids are using this whole “love of all things maritime” as an excuse, a cover story, a diversion. But, no. Time has proven that their interest really is in hitting open water and fishing/scuba/snorkeling. The darn kids are sea rats. That said, understand that I am under no misapprehensions that once underway, there are not Yeti coolers full of beers on board.
Now, thankfully, finally, the Lovely and Talented Mrs. Mongo and I are empty nesters. Relief. A little. But all my kids feel the call of the Keys, and the pull of Mother Ocean. The little bastards are always coming back to visit, and hit open water.
So, when I got the call from a visiting daughter [Call sign: PROM QUEEN] that she was staying over at a friend’s (and I know the friend and know the friend’s parents, so not much room for prevarication there) in order to go swordfishing early the next morning, I said “Okay, great. I love you. Don’t do anything that’ll force me to kill you.”
Fishing for swordfish is one notch down from fishing for unicorns. You can do it all day, every day, but you’re probably not going to pull one in. Yeah, unless you got Prom Queen on your boat. Her boat pulled in three humongozoid swordfish. It was a ridiculous haul. No one ever gets that. All of the fishers on the boat, male and female, all friends from elementary, middle, and high school, told Prom Queen that she can’t go back after swordfish for at least the next five years.
Well, why not?
Because after today, you’ll just be setting yourself up for heartbreak.
Then, Prom Queen had the unmitigated gall to pull in two great dolphins.
A lot of parents have to worry about their kids getting involved in sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. I worry about whether my kids will catch the following seas to get out and harvest swordfish, dolphin, and sailfish (BTW, sailfish aren’t keepers; you pull them in, weigh them (if you’ve got the capability on your boat) take your pics and throw them back in).
I can live with that. Yeah, I know sex and drugs is a risk factor no matter where you’re at. But if the kid is focused on making the tide at 0600 in the morning, it helps.
Published in General
Those are magazine cover fish.
Well, that really is something.
Impressive.
Amazing. You and the lovely Mrs. Mongo have done excellent jobs in raising the Mongo horde.
Indeed.
Nice fish, too.
Three!?! I know guys who blow through a lot of money just trying to get one.
Caught my 16 year old son trying to sneak back into the house at 3AM the other day. When he left, I have no idea. He then showed me some photos he took in the woods while trying to find nocturnal animals. I guess pursuing wildlife is better than pursuing a wild life.
Nicely done Ms Mongoette!
And Boss … I’ll concur about the benefits of an early morning sports activity. My 2 kids were competitive swimmers. I don’t know what goes on at pools in the afternoon and evenings, but swim practices and meets always start at “Oh my God it’s early!” in the morning. There’s nothing like knowing they had to be somewhere and functioning at 5:30 AM to keep a lid on the prior evening’s activities.
It was a huge help to Mrs E and I.
As land lubber I have to ask what this is exactly?
One of my daughters is living in Alaska now—all grown up. She sends us pictures of herself and her friends, all beautiful young women, holding up gigantic fish. She didn’t fish in the old days, but boy is she a fish-killer now. I’m waiting to hear that she’s bought an AR and is going on a bear hunt. (Do you hunt bear with an AR? I should know these things…)
There is something satisfying about seeing your child attain a primitive survival-skill. Whatever happens in Alaska, that kid won’t starve.
@jimgonewild, from the Mariner’s Learning System website:
If you are looking to offer fishing and sailing charters, become a certified instructor or provide guide services commercially, then the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels Captain’s License (OUPV) is for you. This license is the most popular license and is commonly referred to as a Six-pack because it allows the holder to take up to six paying passengers and crew out on the water.
The OUPV/Six-pack licenses are issued in three forms:
If it’s a standard AR-15 (5.56mm round) you can hunt bear with it once…just once.
If it’s a AR-10 (AR chambered for 7.62) you may well do better, but it’s probably still not enough gun. I’m not a bear hunter, but I would imagine if I were I’m pretty sure that my First Principle would be “bring enough gun.”
My preferred course of action would be to take off and nuke it from space.
That is one heck of a sunburn.
Be careful with that inland sailing.
My daughter #2, along with my three grandchildren, also lives in Alaska. Although her husband is a lawyer, he would much rather fish than practice law. When I visit each summer (unfortunately, because of Covid, couldn’t go this summer) we always have a couple of big salmon or cod feasts thanks to his efforts. I worry about the economy in Alaska with no tourists this summer and the price of oil in the tank. He’s seeing more bankruptcy cases than he’s ever done before.
This post is part of our August theme: “Reeling in the Summer.” We have plenty of open days. Stop by today and sign up today.
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Most state hunting regulations have minimum caliber, and/or foot-pounds of energy for large game. An 5.56 round is a no-no. Its really just a varmint round, from a civilian stand point.
All of those rounds measured in millimeters turn out to be deceptively itty-bitty.
Great post, Boss. I come from a family of fishermen, but it skipped me. I’m a desert rat. I do appreciate, though I don’t really share, the love of the ocean inherent in sea dogs.
If you shoot a bear with a 5.56, you’re gonna make him mad.
Not as mad as he’ll be if you shoot him with a 7.62.
A cousin of mine had a bear gun, a largish shotgun, capable of slugs, of course. But where he was, the bears would be black bears. Up in Alaska and similar Northern climes, one is more likely to meet the brown (grizzly) bear or a polar bear. Both species should be nuked from orbit just to be safe.
I am surprised that activities such as these would be taken to by such a shrinking violet as she.
Unreal. Tell her good job and feel free to share that she loses some of that prom queen aura laying in fish blood……….
Nice 😁
In the Keys? Ha!
Ice time for youth hockey leagues is dark time. And you learn early that you don’t skate if you forgot a pad, or helmet….. yay sports!
Update- I did think that the Stanley Cup was safe from SJ / BLM infestation. Nope. So very discouraging.
BTW, Prom Queen enjoyed The Nanny, although she was appalled that Shenae was smoking in front of her boss at the end. “That’s so unprofessional!”
Shaddap, you don’t even smoke.
See sent me this from last weekend, to ensure I knew she’s still clocking her range time.