On Frozen Pond

On Frozen Pond

By Lawrence Townsend Vose

Fishing season doesn't end for Jonny. It also has no beginning. You see... Jonny lives in a hussle bussle world where everything is moving so fast. Where no one will notice a young boy off to the side of the road fishing. In a tiny little pond that should in NO WAY even contain fish. But while skimming stones across the pond after the winter thaw. Jonny noticed some small fish feeding close to shore. So when Jonny went to Walmart with his dad one day. He spotted a Zebco 202 fishing pole ready to go and asked his dad to buy it for him. His dad agreed. It came with extra hooks, sinkers and bobbas.

Little 12 year old Jonny could not wait to get back home, dig some worms, and go to the tiny pond to fish. Where no man has fished before. One brave kid!!! one brave cast!!! and jonny hooked one brave enough fish!!! And then proceeded to haul it onto shore. Jonnies eyes lit up like a Christmas tree from the second he hooked that 8 inch fish till the moment it layed there on the banks of the Patomac. That is the name that Jonny gave his pond. The home of George Washington. Because as far as jonny and his parents knew. The pond had no name.

So now, Jonny had something to do other than just hang with his friends, for which, some, were not being good. Its easy to be bad when you live in a city where you feel you will never be noticed. And thats exactly how Jonny felt. Very alone and very un noticed. He could not paint a brighter future than he could right there, that day, on the banks of the Patomac. It became an every day feature event for Jonny. Go to school, go fishing, have breakfeast, go fishing. Do chores, go fishing. Fishing filled the gaps in Jonnies days and filled his nights with dreams of tomorrows.

As summer ended, fall came and went. And Jonny kept on a fishing. It was cold and bait was hard to come by so instaed of worms he experimented with Cheerios, Reccees cups, and M&M's. Nope. But little pieces of bread crust seemed to work just fine if Jonny cast very very gently. After each catch, Jonny would let the fish go back into the pond. Jonny's greatest nightmare would be that he fished the pond dry and had to find something else to do with his spare time.

But that simple fear, was nothing compared to his next thought. And then it happened. It was very cold out this Saturday morning. It was 9 AM and Jonny decided to go fishing this day. He hadn't been for a few days because of it being so cold. And when he arrived at the Patomack. It was frozen. It looked like a giant ice cube the size of a football field almost. Jonny quickly looked to see if he could spot fish frozen in time within the giant cube. And a big smile came over Jonny's face. He could see fish swimming around through the ice. About one foot down from the surface, Jonny could see a Sun Fish swimming about as though nothing was wrong, different, changed, or out of place. Jonny was relieved.

Life was once again taking a natural course of action and all is OK. The only thing that is NOT OK, is that Jonny wants to go fishing. He wants to drill a hole through the ice, like seen on the history and sports channels. Jonny goes back home and talks to his dad. Jonny's dad has been paying very close attention all year long. And so has Jonnies mom. They are both very proud of Jonny and both agree that helping Jonny break the ice and concour his dream is the right thing to do.

So... Jonny takes his dad to the Patomac to survey the situation. The ice is about 5 inches thick and will be quite tough to go through. Jonny suggests a sledge hammer and his dad says absolutly not. The ice shards that will fly through the air are extremely dangerous. With a smile, dad tells Jonny to follow me. They go to the garage and return to the Patomac with dads cordless drill kit. As Jonny pays very close attention, dad takes the drill and puts a long half inch drill bit into the front of it and starts drilling holes in a circle. After doing about half of a 10 inch circle, dad hands the drill to Jonny to complete the drilling. Once Jonny got enough holes drilled. Dad took out whats called a Saws All and finished cutting out the hole in the ice.

Jonny now had a hole in the ice to fish through and returned to his pile on the banking to get his fishing pole. Dad stuck around long enough to watch Jonny put a tiny piece of bread crust on his hook, drop it to ther bottom of the pond, and imediately pull a fish up through the hole. Jonny high fived his dad and thanked him as he walked off to return back home. Mom was very happy with him for helping me.

I spent the next 2 hours on the patomac thinking about what I see in the distance. I can see a little bit of everything I think. I can definately see high rises and billboards flashing. And I can also see the roof tops of the poor peoples homes that sit on valuable land. Knowing that some day the high rises will replace those homes and I will never know what happened to the people. Again... A natural occurance.

I look to my left, I look to my right, everythings cool. I look up and down, and all is just fine. Untill... I look behind. and be darned what I find. I don't know his name, nor his claim to his fame. He is not my friend, he is not my foe. He gives nor will he take away. I have spotted a surveyor today. I dont even have to think about it and yell to the man. "Is it sold yet?"... He replies with an answer that I knew means it would only be a matter of time. Before nature, money, would take the Patomac from me. I was too old to cry. And too smart to complain. I didn't even tell mom and dad. But I did continue to fish.

However... I now would invite my friends to tag along and we all had great times on the banks of that tiny pond. And as nature would provide. Because I told that surveyor that their was fish in that pond. An organization that protects natural evolutionary occurances prevented the sale and developement of that land untill we had all finished college. I had my college graduation party right there on the banks of the Patomack with my parents and all my friends.

The pond was eventually replaced with condos, but that tiny little pond, full of fish, I named the Potomac, held out for the longest time. Refusing to give up to the evolution of progress. Nature at its best. Years later, after new ownership of the condo complex, I had driven by to see that the new owners had renamed the complex. "The Potomac"