As a boy my first experiences fishing were when I went away to church camp many weekends and during the summer for a week at a time.....Camp Brantwood down in Sandwich, Camp Monadnock in NH, Camp O-at-ka in Maine and several others. Great days of my youth spent with friends, a few of whom I have had for my entire life. At these camps I made great memories with these friends.....memories of us grabbing our gear and heading through the pine trees with our Zebco rods and our small metal tackle boxes to do some fishing. Hornpout, perch, bass, pickeral......didn't matter......we just plain had a ball as kids do and these were the early days of a lifelong love affair with fishing. Great days spent in the innocence of youth where the days lasted forever and the summers never ended. I found out yesterday that one of my earliest "fishing buddies" and a friend I have had for most of my life having grown up together and gone to school together with had passed away. His name was Bruce and together with him and his 2 brothers we grew up together attending the same church, playing church league basketball together, going to camp, and later on they moved to my town and we attended school together from junior high through high school. Since the news yesterday my mind has been flush with wonderful memories of a simpler time in life. memories that have been tucked away in a dark corner of my mind until now but they are as of yesterday so vivid....just as if they happened yesterday. Bruce was a wonderful kid and friend.....his obituary reads that he still loved to fish......just as I do today though we had not fished together since childhood. I wish we had the opportunity but life gets busy as you grow older. You never forget friends like Bruce......and sadly at 46 years of age he has gone to fish where hopefully the sun never sets, the fish are large and you catch one on every cast. Thanks for the great memories Bruce and for spending some time with me. I will never forget those great days we shared. Rest in peace my friend.
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