Memories of Walter at the tackle shop
Some
65 years ago when I was ten years old I already knew that angling was
to be by far the most important thing in my life.
In those days children did not have any money to spend and few adults
were solvent either, but I found a marvellous pal just when I needed one.
His name was Walter and he ran a fishing tackle shop to keep it open while
the real owner, his son, was away fighting in the war.
I would walk a very long way from home to visit old Walter even though
I suffered from polio, and sometimes he would give me small items of fishing
tackle such as hooks or a float or some split shot.
He even shut the shop occasionally and took me fishing for roach in some
ponds some distance away from the shop.
Though Walter was an ace at catching those roach I never seemed able to
catch anything other than gudgeon myself.
Then one day on my first cast my float immediately sank beneath the surface
and I assumed that I had put too much lead shot on the line.
Attempting to wind in the tackle to remove some of the weights I found
that a roach had grabbed the hook and hooked itself even though it was
a bare hook that it had taken because I had not even put any bait on at
the time but was merely checking my shotting up.
Another memory of the shop was of a day when instead of walking there
I actually had a whole penny to spend and this paid for the half penny
fare on the tram and back.
I had a school friend with me that day and when we were on the tram coming
home he showed me items from his pockets including floats and hooks. He
had stolen the tackle when old Walter was not looking.
I was so annoyed to discover that he had betrayed the trust of my first
true pal that without waiting for the tram to stop I grabbed him by the
hair and threw him off the tram, then jumped off myself.
I forcibly escorted the culprit back to the shop and made him give the
tackle back and humbly apologise to Walter.
Though nearly everyone was poor in those days hardly anyone stole anything,
and now that the opposite applies fishing has enabled me to escape into
a world where some sanity still exists.