Originally Posted by detbuch
It's been a while, but I've posted several times on other forums in this site--the movie, music, and sports forums in particular, but a few others as well. Been a member for over eleven years. And I no longer own a fishing rod.
There was a time when I hung out with a family who owned a cottage on Harsens Island, and would go fishing with them on the St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair, and a few other places. Nothing big like you guys do on this forum, just small fresh water fish. It was nice to be out on the lake, but wasn't into the hard work of prepping the boat in the spring and wasn't that good at catching anything.
One of my most favorite pieces of literature is Hemingway's Big Two Hearted River. I camped off of it in the U.P one summer many years ago.
I happened on this site not as an intention but more as an accident. I had been selling stuff on ebay as an addition to my pension and social security income--which was the cause of my even being interested in using a computer. So I was a novice at it, and gradually wandered outside of ebay and into the endless ocean of the internet. Long story short, I wanted to verify something going viral about an Australian Prime minister, if I remember correctly, who wrote or said something . . . gosh I can't remember what it was . . . maybe about liberalism or some such thing . . . and found a link to a post by Buckman on this site.
Being introduced to the site, and the political forum on which Buckman's post appeared, I began to read other threads and even old ones. There were these fascinating discussions that I wanted to have but had no outlet for.
I registered and eventually began joining the conversation. I searched for other sites which more realistically fit my personal interests, golf sites, philosophy sites, literary sites, but though they all had political forums, the discussion lacked the "real" quality--the fleshy, salty, sort of blood and guts views that fishermen seem to have, and is mingled with the natural inner search for meanings found in the craft of fishing as can be found in Hemingway's fishing stories, or even in Moby-#^&#^&#^&#^&, for that matter.
So I ignored the other forums and have become addicted to this one. You guys are, for sure, really "real." I was sorry to see some move on to other places and are no longer part of the discussions here. I remember, with respect if not fondly, the great JohnnyD who loved to stir the pot. And RIJimmy who moved to Texas. Of course, there are those regulars on "my side" here with whom I mostly agree and whose posts give me a pick-me-up who I won't name since I can't remember them all at the moment, but will give special mention of Scottw, my twin brother from another mother, and, of course, my nemeses like you and PeteF and Spence, who annoy the $hit out of me, but who I respect for your efforts and without whom there would be no discussion. And reserve a very special mention of JohnR and The Dad Fisherman who I highly respect for their attempt to be neutral and balanced. Though I'm sure that many of us make it hard for them to maintain their cool.
So if you want to start a thread to vote if I should remain on the site, that would be interesting. And I would abide, without resentment, the final decision. Probably don't have much time left on this side of dirt anyway. And should be doing something more productive with the time I have left.
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