Bear Paw Meanderings
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When I write about my childhood on Clear Creek sometimes I make it sound like we spent lots of time there in the winter. We did not. There were no four wheel drives then and in our family the first day on Clear Creek was often the first day of stream fishing which was around the third weekend of May.
That was a big doings no matter what old fishing shack we were at. We were fishermen, after all, even if some of us did not fly fish but just dipped a worm engorged hook in the water and tried to bring forth a big brookie or rainbow to have for breakfast.
Stream fishing usually opened on a Saturday and we might as well have locked up the Lou Lucke Company because everyone went to Clear Creek and it started the night before and was a time filled with good food, lots of beer for the adults and all night poker games.
Maybe Grandma Lucke would send out a ham for that first night. And some homemade garlic bread. We would make ham sandwiches with fried eggs in them and lots of Grandma Lucke’s famous homemade mayonnaise slathered on them as well. Scott’s wife Chick would send a big bowl of her ham and macaroni salad and my mother would send a bowl of her shrimp and macaroni salad and we all would eat like royalty. There were always lots of homemade pickles and condiments to be had as well.
The next morning someone or several people would get up early and go fishing and come back with some large brook trout which the morning cook, whoever that might be, would dip in flour and fry up for breakfast. Also for breakfast there would be potatoes, pancakes, and always bacon and eggs of some kind.
The schedule was to fish the early hours, come back to breakfast, take a nap, maybe play some poker and fish again in the early evening, then come back to a large meal and then more poker.
The evening meal might be chicken and dumplings or maybe grandma Lucke corned a brisket and we had corn beef and cabbage or maybe Al’s wife Jan would prepare a whole turkey and bring it out in the afternoon and roast it for the evening meal. We ate high on the hog and were very successful at our fishing too.
Anyway before we knew it, it was Sunday and after another large breakfast we headed for town, always disappointed that we were leaving and always planning for the next time we were going to be at an old shack on Clear Creek having the time of our lives!
