Reminiscing

Since Father's day is coming up, I was thinking back to some of the fond memories I used to share with my pops. There are so many fun things I remember, like picking cherries off of our cherry tree in the back yard so that my mom could make us fresh cherry pie (even though I don't eat cooked fruit), playing catch for hours, taking river walks on the Canadian River, watching Pee Wee's playhouse and eating chocolate donuts, putting together a bug collection, climbing the magnolia tree in our front yard, going to the gym with him while he trained his fighters and carrying the spit buckets, going to some of his fights and watching him referee, play boxing with him while I make the "tss, tss," sound every time I threw a punch, making him watch me do 100 back handsprings and do gymnastics in the backyard, etc.

But one of my favorite memories was fishing. We used to fish all of the time during the summer. We'd head out early, pack a cooler, stop by the tackle shop (where I had my picture taken for catching two huge bass) where we'd grab some worms or minnows, and head to our fishing hole. Me with my miniature fishing pole ready to catch the big ones. I never really thought about it until I got older, but our fishing hole was in a small town called Lexington, Oklahoma and it was located right by the prison. Yup, that's right the prison. "You might be a redneck." ;)
Anyway, we'd spend all day out there fishing and when we'd run out of bait, my dad would have me search for grasshopers to use as bait. We'd catch fish after fish, he'd make me touch their eyes and spit on them for good luck and we'd throw them back. There was nothing cooler than hanging out and fishing with my dad. Boy, those were the days.

What are some of your fondest memories as a kid?