08-25-2003, 01:33 PM
That's better than finding a sack of freshly minted gold coins, isn't it? Another aspect of fishing, it isn't gender specific. Daughters welcome. When I was a Girl Scout Leader (yes, a crusty old fart like me lead a troop of Girl Scouts), I suggested taking all the girls fishing. Unfortunately, the parents didn't think it was a good idea simply because they didn't want to take the time to go (I couldn't fit 23 scouts in my truck) or were afraid that it would become habit forming. So I did the next best thing, I taught them to cast at our weekly meetings. In return, I designed them a Merit Badge and "everyone" earned one.
The down side to all this was the local Girl Scout Council wouldn't accept the badge because it wasn't in the Girl Scout training manual (7 & 8 year old girls don't read that manual), plus they didn't like my teaching them knife safety (with paper knives) or photography (with a Poloroid), things that weren't on the training schedule (my girls weren't interested in finger-painting t-shirts or making sprinkles on paper, they wanted to learn stuff from the real world). I even arranged to have a local game warden talk to them about animal wildlife and conservation (not the PETA garbage). Have you ever seen 23- rambuncious, full-of-energy kids sit still for an hour? These did, giving the game warden their full attention, undivided attention.
The point being, girls enjoy the outdoors, especially fishing when they catch fish, and are just as much fun as sons. My 28-y/o daughter still bugs me to take her fishing, when we can find a babysitter for my grandson. My 24-y/o daughter was disappointed when we didn't go fishing the last time she visited me from California. I have two granddaughter in Wisconsin that have their own fishing outfits, thanks to me, and bug my son-in-law to take them fishing (he doesn't enjoy the outdoors), and then take off and go with their friends. Fishing and being outdoors is the greatest anti-drug there is. My daughter in Cal tells me once in a while that she's run into an ex-GS member and they always ask about me, even when they have kids in tow. They remember those two years of my being their GS leader even after all these years, and they things they learned. If you can believe this, one girl, who turned out to be a beautiful model, wouldn't marry until she found someone who enjoyed fishing as much as she did. They now regularly travel the world, fishing while she's on assignment.
Things doesn't get any better that that and are memories I'll take to my grave. Take 'em fishing every chance you get, Shark_Hunter. You're making an investment in "their" future.
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The down side to all this was the local Girl Scout Council wouldn't accept the badge because it wasn't in the Girl Scout training manual (7 & 8 year old girls don't read that manual), plus they didn't like my teaching them knife safety (with paper knives) or photography (with a Poloroid), things that weren't on the training schedule (my girls weren't interested in finger-painting t-shirts or making sprinkles on paper, they wanted to learn stuff from the real world). I even arranged to have a local game warden talk to them about animal wildlife and conservation (not the PETA garbage). Have you ever seen 23- rambuncious, full-of-energy kids sit still for an hour? These did, giving the game warden their full attention, undivided attention.
The point being, girls enjoy the outdoors, especially fishing when they catch fish, and are just as much fun as sons. My 28-y/o daughter still bugs me to take her fishing, when we can find a babysitter for my grandson. My 24-y/o daughter was disappointed when we didn't go fishing the last time she visited me from California. I have two granddaughter in Wisconsin that have their own fishing outfits, thanks to me, and bug my son-in-law to take them fishing (he doesn't enjoy the outdoors), and then take off and go with their friends. Fishing and being outdoors is the greatest anti-drug there is. My daughter in Cal tells me once in a while that she's run into an ex-GS member and they always ask about me, even when they have kids in tow. They remember those two years of my being their GS leader even after all these years, and they things they learned. If you can believe this, one girl, who turned out to be a beautiful model, wouldn't marry until she found someone who enjoyed fishing as much as she did. They now regularly travel the world, fishing while she's on assignment.
Things doesn't get any better that that and are memories I'll take to my grave. Take 'em fishing every chance you get, Shark_Hunter. You're making an investment in "their" future.
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