Or at least you should have, considering I caught a whale of a lot of fish when I was growing up, mainly at Lake Thunderbird, plus the occasional trips to ginormous Lake Texoma.

After my Dad left the Fire Department, he bought a modest tri-hull boat with a small Evinrude motor. It didn’t look like much, but Dad had done his homework, and it was a workhorse.

The tri-hull meant it could handle choppy water well, and its open design allowed five or more people to fish at a time.

We went to the lake a lot.

And because my Mom was one of those naturally well-organised people, when we mobilized for the lake, we did so with the speed and efficiency of the U.S. Navy.

At least Mom and Dad did.

While they were racing full speed ahead, I was in the backyard with my Zebco 303 rod-and-reel combo, practicing casting a heavy sinker into a minnow bucket 20 yards away.

My Dad only allowed two stops on the way to the lake: getting ice and beer at the quickie mart thingee, and minnows at Art’s Bait House, near the corner of Old Highway Nine and Alemeda.

I loved Art’s Bait House.

It was hidden, way back under the trees and an old tin roof, and had served the Norman fishing community for generations.

It had tons of fishing tackle, but mainly it had the scrappiest minnows in the universe.

The minnows were kept in separate concrete tanks for small, medium and whale-size minnows. The whales could actually fin you and make you bleed...

#humor #normanstories #fishing #lakethunderbird #artsbaithouse #icecoldbeer #oklahomahumor #simplertimes #zebco #minnows #crappie #dirtybird #artsminnows #theicedock #babyboomer #nostalgia #artmauldin #pumptheminnows #alamedastreet #growingupinnorman