It was an ice fishing trip to Herring Pond in Eastham some 20 years ago that Capn' Cupcake AKA Stifftip aka Dave LaPorte got his nickname.
A bunch of us were out there fishing trout on 6 inches of black ice with 6 inches of fresh powder on top when a gentleman we new from the Worcester area who was fishing near us but not with us came over with a fifth of Rumplemintz with the seal unbroken. It was midday and he sauntered up with the bottle in hand and asked if anyone wanted a taste. Stiffy takes the bottle, tears of the seal and uncrews the cap and throws it down a tip up hole and says "I'll show you how to drink that" to which the gentleman who brought over the bottle says, "I'm game if you are Cupcake".
Several of our little gang imbibed and at the end of the day, after picking up Stiffy and Dave K's tilts and such we went out with my ice sled and loaded them one at a time into it and dragged thier drunken carcases off of the ice as the could not stand up anymore without assistance. When I got home I had to chip frozen puke off of my trucks passenger door. It wasn't Stiffy's puke but anothers.
What a memorable day whatching the human condition deteriorate over the course of two hours from thinking thought processing human beings to slobbering incoherent useless piles of flesh.
That's how ice fishing was back then.
