Another Easter Memory

I’ve been in North Carolina since Monday and haven’t had internet access. I'll be back around on Tuesday and try to catch up on everyone's writings. Here is something I wrote right before Easter, a memory of my childhood. This memory was probably from 1964 or 65. The photo on the left was taken on Easter Sunday 1972 (my father was in a rebellion stage, driving a yellow car). Although the oldest, at this point in my life I was shorter than both my brother and sister.


As a child, there was always a small gift in our Easter basket. Mom had prepared our baskets with eggs that we’d dyed, along with a variety of candy. My favorite was the malt balls covered with chocolate and hard candy. Mom handled the candy and decorating, but I’m pretty sure my dad picked out the small gift, because it was almost always some sort of fishing gear. Over the years, there were packets of plastic worms and a variety of lures, but the one that I will always remember was a yellow jitterbug. I think this was the first year of the tradition, the Easter after my brother and I had received a Zepco fishing rod. I was either in the first or second grade. My jitterbug was bright yellow and my brother’s was black. They were both larger lures, maybe 3 1/2 inches long; my dad had a large ambition when it came to fishing.

Interestingly, I remember what happened to those two lures. My brother’s ended up on a powerline over my Uncle Frank’s pond and for years you could see it dangling there, beside other lures and tackle that hung along the lines, looking like a trotline for a flying fish. He got tired of me joking about his failure to catch flying-fish. I had my jitterbug longer; in fact, I never lost it. It was still in a freshwater tackle box, its paint having flaked a bit over the decades, when that tackle box was stolen from my car when we lived in Utah. There is no telling what happened to that lure, but I hope it’s still catching fish.

A jitterbug is an ideal lure to catch bass in the evening, as the fish move close into the shore to feed and often come up to the surface to feast on bugs. The lure stays on the top of the water and it waddles back and forth, much like giant water bug. The fish hears and feels its movement across the surface and are drawn in for a strike.

As I was recalling this tradition from my childhood, the giving of fishing lures, it dawned on me that a lure was an appropriate Easter gift. My favorite post-resurrection story of Jesus is him on the beach, roasting fish for the disciples who’d spent the evening on the water. A number of the disciples were fisherman and Jesus tells them that they’re to continue to fish, only for people. They’re to continue to cast out the nets, metaphorically.

Update: my memory may not be completely correct. I told this story to my brother and he said he thinks he still has his jitterbug, so maybe it was another lure that went over the lines at my uncle’s pond.