Hazard's Glory Years

In the early Forties we were all familiar with the Goose House. Thought it was a little odd but it had always been there. Just like the graveyard on down the road with all the little houses built on the graves. There was a grocery store next to the Goose House. I think the owner was named Pence. He and my dad were good friends and they occasionally went fishing together.

One summer weekend, Pence decided we would take the big truck and drive down to the Knoxville Farmers Market and get a load of watermelons for the grocery store. Pence had a son about the same age as me. On the way down we stopped over at Norris Dam and did some fishing. Me and the other kid eventually took a friend's motor boat out and we toured the lake. We fished some but mostly went swimming in the cool water. We both got a pretty good sunburn. The best fishing in Tennessee was on down near Etowah on the Hiwassee River. That's where my Dad was born and raised. The Hiwassee was full of big catfish, everywhere, and they were great to eat. I still get a glimpse of the river driving up and down I-75. The bridge crosses the river just south of Athens. Beautiful country. Every time I cross, I always think about running the trot lines early in the morning collecting all that catfish. In Kentucky we made a lot of trips over to Cumberland Lake. It was not very crowded back then. There was good fishing at Harrington Lake, too. What a great life that was...