Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.
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I’ve written several times about how my dad was an avid fisherman. Whenever he had some free time, he usually went fishing. That being the case, you would think he would have had a very large tackle box, but he didn’t. You see, he only used one when he was fishing from a boat – maybe at Indian Lake, or Fudgers Lake over by Mechanicsburg. So his tackle box was pretty small.
Most of the time, he fished from the banks of a creek or river, or perhaps a farm pond. He didn’t like to carry a tackle box because he needed two hands to operate his fly rod or his casting rod. So he wore some sort of fishing vest, which he bought during the 1920s when he lived in Pennsylvania.
It was a lightweight, khaki vest that was loaded with pockets and compartments. There was a place to put just about any kind of fishing lure or gadget you could think of. There were even pockets on the inside of the vest. There were so many pockets, in fact, that I wondered how my dad knew which one to open when he needed something.
He was constantly adding new lures and gadgets, and he bought a lot of them at Shuler’s Hardware Store on the west side of South Main Street. I think that was his favorite store in town. In addition to all the hardware items, there was a room at the back of the store that contained nothing but fishing tackle. So no matter what my dad went into that store to buy, maybe some sandpaper or a hinge, he ended up in the fishing tackle department.
I often could tell in advance when he was going to come home with some new lure or fishing accessory. Let’s say I saw him repairing something in our garage, and he needed some special kind of bolt or nut. That meant he would be going to Shuler’s, and if he was going there, I knew he would come home with some sort of fishing thing.
Marysville had another hardware store. It was only a block or so away, and the hardware items there were just as good as those at Shuler’s, but he didn’t go there. He always went to Shuler’s so he could browse through their fishing tackle department.
My mother once called him at work and asked him to stop at Shuler’s on his way home and buy some jar lids for some pears she was canning. He stopped in the store, and the sales clerk, a man named Rhodes, told him they had just received some of those new “Jitterbug” fishing lures, and my dad should take a look at them.
He immediately went into the fishing tackle department to see those new lures. He really liked them, so he bought one and took it home. He was pretty excited about that, and he showed it to my mother as soon as he walked into the house.
She told him it was a very nice fishing lure, but then she asked him for the canning jar lids. I think he probably felt a little embarrassed, because he had gotten so excited about the Jitterbug that he forgot to get the canning jar lids. My mother just shook her head, and told my dad that he was suffering from some sort of fishing “sickness.” Over the years, I heard her tell him that quite a few times.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at bill@davidwboyd.com