Friendships past, stories and talltales
By Doug Salway on Friday, May 25, 2012 at 5:22pm
Any of you have that special group of friends? You know, those through thick and thin kind of deals? Well in my life, I've been lucky enough to have two sets. These are the kind of friends that no matter where you are you're always going to keep in touch. I mean we're not just friends, we're family For the next little while, whenever I get the inkling to do so, I'm going to be posting long lost stories of long ago. If anybody finds them entertaining let me know, or if you happen to be one of the people in the story and I've somehow mangled it over time, by all means please correct me.
It was probably a cool autumn afternoon. We had gathered by the lake as we were want to do during this time of year. You see, Bobby was the live in maintenance man at a Christian summer camp. After the Summer had ended the camp would close up till mid spring, so we pretty much had free run of the place for over half the year. At any given time you could find any combination of Bobby, Ben, Paul, and myself just hanging around and running amuck. On this particular day I'm not sure who was there, or even if I was there. Its one of those kind of stories that after so many retellings, you're not so clear on the detail but you know it so well that you may have been there just the same. We're going to assume for stories sake that all four of us were. Like I said before, it was definitely a cool autumn afternoon. We we're gather at the edge of the lake, in a tiny cove just off from the main camp. We would always fish here, best fish, less Gar. We had been sitting quietly on the bank for most of the day, I hadn't caught anything, of course I never did. The day had been pretty peaceful until this vicious creature dug its way straight up from hell. This god awful chirping noise just started coming out of nowhere, breaking that much loved silence. After some looking around we discover the source, this tiny little mud frog had clawed its way up out of the mud. He just sat there chirping away, just happy to be seen and heard. After about ten minutes of this Bobby decided he was over it and pushed the annoyance back into the mud. Squish went his foot and gone was the hell spawn. We all had a good laugh about it and went on fishing. Sometime later the chirping had started again, looking down there was our little friend back for more. Sitting between Bobby and myself, right in the middle of Bobby's footprint. This time it was my turn, I picked up my foot and plopped him even further down in the mud. There was no way he was coming back to bother us, of course I was wrong, he came back louder than ever. This went on for some time, Bobby and I would take turns. We'd push him in and he's come back for more. We all just decided to ignore the little bastard, seem the best thing to do. We four sat there trying our best to pretend that it just wasn't there. That little monster was relentless, he must have continued on for at least two more hours. Just when I was about to push him back in, Bobby let out a milk curdling scream. He slammed his fishing pole to the ground and picked up the 12 gauge shotgun we always carried with us, you in case of trouble. We were in the woods of South Carolina after all, you never know what kind of furry, four legged, man eating, possibly banjo picking nasty was going to come out at you. Anyway, like I was saying, Bobby picked up the gun and aimed at the frog. Now, this aiming consisted of basically resting the barrel right on top of the the frog's head. Before any of us knew what was going on, he pulled the trigger. I don't know about you, but I've never been that close to a gunshot before. Meaning to say, that I was the one right next to Bobby, I'm talking less than a foot away from the frog. Ben and Paul were on either side of us. So, lets recap here shall we, we've got the ground which upon is sitting a frog, a mud frog, maybe 3 inches tall, if that. A 12 gauge shotgun with the barrel on top, and me all cozy right next to it. I would say there was a very loud bang, but I could be certain since I couldn't hear anything over the ringing in my ears from the blast. I looked up at Bobby, he was oblivious of what he had just done. Just standing there, staring at this smoking hole where the frog had been seconds ago. He was covered up to his waist and some of his face with mud, of course we all were cover with mud. Me being the worst since I was sitting down at ground zero. Bobby threw the gun down on the large once was frog hole, sat down and began casting his rod out again. There pretty much was no use fishing anymore, that shot probably scared even the biggest fish away from our spot. We didn't care, we were going to fish anyway. We sat there in quite again, nobody mentioning Bobby's melt-down. About a hour had past since the incident and I was just about to cast out again. I looked down at my feet just in time to seen a large clump of mud that was sitting between me and Ben start moving a bit. Within a few seconds something had emerged from the center of the pile, climb up on top. It just sat there eyeing us, its bulbous eyes twitching back and forth. Then it sucked in a deep breath, big enough for something three times its size and started chirping. It was that goddamn mud frog again! Bobby casually stood up didn't say a word to any of us. He threw his pole in the water, gathered his shotgun strolled away into the dusk.
It was probably a cool autumn afternoon. We had gathered by the lake as we were want to do during this time of year. You see, Bobby was the live in maintenance man at a Christian summer camp. After the Summer had ended the camp would close up till mid spring, so we pretty much had free run of the place for over half the year. At any given time you could find any combination of Bobby, Ben, Paul, and myself just hanging around and running amuck. On this particular day I'm not sure who was there, or even if I was there. Its one of those kind of stories that after so many retellings, you're not so clear on the detail but you know it so well that you may have been there just the same. We're going to assume for stories sake that all four of us were. Like I said before, it was definitely a cool autumn afternoon. We we're gather at the edge of the lake, in a tiny cove just off from the main camp. We would always fish here, best fish, less Gar. We had been sitting quietly on the bank for most of the day, I hadn't caught anything, of course I never did. The day had been pretty peaceful until this vicious creature dug its way straight up from hell. This god awful chirping noise just started coming out of nowhere, breaking that much loved silence. After some looking around we discover the source, this tiny little mud frog had clawed its way up out of the mud. He just sat there chirping away, just happy to be seen and heard. After about ten minutes of this Bobby decided he was over it and pushed the annoyance back into the mud. Squish went his foot and gone was the hell spawn. We all had a good laugh about it and went on fishing. Sometime later the chirping had started again, looking down there was our little friend back for more. Sitting between Bobby and myself, right in the middle of Bobby's footprint. This time it was my turn, I picked up my foot and plopped him even further down in the mud. There was no way he was coming back to bother us, of course I was wrong, he came back louder than ever. This went on for some time, Bobby and I would take turns. We'd push him in and he's come back for more. We all just decided to ignore the little bastard, seem the best thing to do. We four sat there trying our best to pretend that it just wasn't there. That little monster was relentless, he must have continued on for at least two more hours. Just when I was about to push him back in, Bobby let out a milk curdling scream. He slammed his fishing pole to the ground and picked up the 12 gauge shotgun we always carried with us, you in case of trouble. We were in the woods of South Carolina after all, you never know what kind of furry, four legged, man eating, possibly banjo picking nasty was going to come out at you. Anyway, like I was saying, Bobby picked up the gun and aimed at the frog. Now, this aiming consisted of basically resting the barrel right on top of the the frog's head. Before any of us knew what was going on, he pulled the trigger. I don't know about you, but I've never been that close to a gunshot before. Meaning to say, that I was the one right next to Bobby, I'm talking less than a foot away from the frog. Ben and Paul were on either side of us. So, lets recap here shall we, we've got the ground which upon is sitting a frog, a mud frog, maybe 3 inches tall, if that. A 12 gauge shotgun with the barrel on top, and me all cozy right next to it. I would say there was a very loud bang, but I could be certain since I couldn't hear anything over the ringing in my ears from the blast. I looked up at Bobby, he was oblivious of what he had just done. Just standing there, staring at this smoking hole where the frog had been seconds ago. He was covered up to his waist and some of his face with mud, of course we all were cover with mud. Me being the worst since I was sitting down at ground zero. Bobby threw the gun down on the large once was frog hole, sat down and began casting his rod out again. There pretty much was no use fishing anymore, that shot probably scared even the biggest fish away from our spot. We didn't care, we were going to fish anyway. We sat there in quite again, nobody mentioning Bobby's melt-down. About a hour had past since the incident and I was just about to cast out again. I looked down at my feet just in time to seen a large clump of mud that was sitting between me and Ben start moving a bit. Within a few seconds something had emerged from the center of the pile, climb up on top. It just sat there eyeing us, its bulbous eyes twitching back and forth. Then it sucked in a deep breath, big enough for something three times its size and started chirping. It was that goddamn mud frog again! Bobby casually stood up didn't say a word to any of us. He threw his pole in the water, gathered his shotgun strolled away into the dusk.
;-)
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