Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

[P 0 P E Y E]

Stan the man used to have an Etchells sail boat. He would dry sail this 30 foot long high tech sleek beauty. He was in his mid 70s at the time and a bit out spoken.

He would be at the hoist and the cops would stop by and bust his chops over his lack of registration sticker and numbers on the hull. He had the numbers on a board but kept them stowed.

This battle went on for most of the summer. It got to the point that Stan would yell to the cops before they came over to check him out. Each time I tried to defuse the situation I was too late.

Stan was heating up and so were the police. One day that year a kid got shocked next to the water and fell in. The kid needed CPR and pulling out of the water, I did both.

The next day the police came by to congratulate me on my participation in the rescue. I thanked them and then saw this opportunity to bring up the subject of Stan. I told them that I had the deepest appreciation and respect for Stan. They looked puzzled at first so I explained why.

When I explained the fact that Stan was once a 22 year old P.T. boat skipper
in the pacific back in 1943 who saw action, shot down a zero and had run with a man named J. Kennedy, a big light bulb went on and the confrontation came to an end. Thank a vet. A vet is a vet, no mater the age,

I ran into old Stan at a funeral last week, it brought back this mid 90's story.

 

[fire831]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Interesting story.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

I had a grandaddy like that too. He was already an old man in the early 70s. He bought his property and built his house in the 20s. It was destroyed in a hurricane in 1938, but he just moved the homesite up a hill a little ways and rebuilt it, just as it was.

Over the 50+ years that he lived on the same property on a saltwater, coastal pond in RI, he fished for bluefish, stripers, fluke, etc. He also dug quahogs (clams), raked oysters, caught crabs, trapped lobsters, and collected mussels. All of this went on the table. In fact, when he made a chowder, it was always to be eaten on the day after it was made. If you tried to take the pot out of the fridge before supper the next evening, you were in big trouble!

Not once, during this entire time, did he ever possess a fishing license. To be sure, you didn't even have to get one for most of the time period involved, but you did towards the end of his life. Listening to a wildlife officer trying to check him, although I don't think it happened more than a couple of times, was a riot. He would tell them the "those fish are God's fish, not the State's fish, so he wasn't about to pay any money to "some damn fish tax collector!"

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the term "swamp yankee," but it is somewhat akin to a "coonass" (cajun) in Louisiana. Both are known to be comical and set in their ways. Both tend to have a distain for authority of any kind, as well. Somehow, those couple of wildlife officers just got that, and they used to just shake their heads and walk away.

My grandaddy was a veteran too, but his war was WW I. More than that, however, he was a veteran of a more simple time, when people knew enough not to take more than they needed to eat, and not to keep undersized catch. In fact, no one even needed to give them a size limit - they would just bark a gruff, "too small" and throw whatever the item happened to be, back in the pond or ocean. I guess the wildlife guys knew this too.

There was a generation before "The Greatest Generation." I guess we should call them something like "The Greatest Generation, Version I." They were amazingly self reliant and resilient people, and every time I fire up my old Johnson, I think of the lessons of the sea that my grandaddy taught me.

Here's to you, A.B.C.

 

[fire831]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Yet another neat story. Keep them coming folks.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Here's a story that I have reprinted exactly from a local newspaper article form Thursday, July 18th, 1974. A bit unrelated but I feel it pertains to the topic as far as how old farts "used to be":

Windy Rescue
by Bob Valenta

Vernon "Duck" Jennings didn't think much about it, to him it was just all part of being a good sportsman.
Dave Wilson, Sr. said it was much more than that. He said it was an effort that saved the lives of four stranded teenagers.
The two were fishing on Wright Patman Lake (previously known as Lake Texarkana) Sunday afternoon when a storm blew up.
The two cam in and were putting the boat on the trailer when they noticed a man with a concerned look.
They asked if they could help, and the man pointed to the open lake, explaining there were four teenagers out there in a boat that didn't look like it was moving.
Vernon saw through his binoculars that the four were waving for help. Vernon unloaded his boat and went across the open water and three to four foot waves to help the youths.
He brought them back to safety, even though his boat was half-filled with water by the time he got back to the ramp, said Dave.
The four had run out of gasoline and told the two Vivianites they were getting ready to jump out and start swimming to the nearest shore, despite the driving rain and high winds.
"Not many people would have done what Duck did," said Dave. He risked his life to save those four."
By the time the rescue was completed, the wind was blowing so strong, Dave said it took five men to load Vernon's boat on the trailer.


I found this newspaper article laminated in an envelope my Grandmother gave me before she moved to N. Carolina a few years ago. (I was just 2 yrs. old when this event happened) I asked my dad to tell me what happened and he said he and Dave Wilson (his boss at the time) had just arrived at the launch (they saw the storm coming and wisely hauled tail to the launch and loaded their boat) when they saw this guy walking back and forth, looking worried. My dad had a 16 ft. fiberglass boat with stick steering and a 50hp Johnson on it (he called them "hawg troughs".)
By the time he started back with the teenagers, the waves were so large they would come over his head and fill the boat, and the water would just rush over the transom of the boat and the motor would disappear. He said he had no idea how it kept running.
I guess it's no wonder I like Johnson/Evinrude motors so much!
I always love a good old fart story.
JBJ

 

[P 0 P E Y E]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

I had a grandaddy like that too. He was already an old man in the early 70s. He bought his property and built his house in the 20s. It was destroyed in a hurricane in 1938, but he just moved the homesite up a hill a little ways and rebuilt it, just as it was.

Over the 50+ years that he lived on the same property on a saltwater, coastal pond in RI, he fished for bluefish, stripers, fluke, etc. He also dug quahogs (clams), raked oysters, caught crabs, trapped lobsters, and collected mussels. All of this went on the table. In fact, when he made a chowder, it was always to be eaten on the day after it was made. If you tried to take the pot out of the fridge before supper the next evening, you were in big trouble!

Not once, during this entire time, did he ever possess a fishing license. To be sure, you didn't even have to get one for most of the time period involved, but you did towards the end of his life. Listening to a wildlife officer trying to check him, although I don't think it happened more than a couple of times, was a riot. He would tell them the "those fish are God's fish, not the State's fish, so he wasn't about to pay any money to "some damn fish tax collector!"

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the term "swamp yankee," but it is somewhat akin to a "coonass" (cajun) in Louisiana. Both are known to be comical and set in their ways. Both tend to have a distain for authority of any kind, as well. Somehow, those couple of wildlife officers just got that, and they used to just shake their heads and walk away.

My grandaddy was a veteran too, but his war was WW I. More than that, however, he was a veteran of a more simple time, when people knew enough not to take more than they needed to eat, and not to keep undersized catch. In fact, no one even needed to give them a size limit - they would just bark a gruff, "too small" and throw whatever the item happened to be, back in the pond or ocean. I guess the wildlife guys knew this too.

There was a generation before "The Greatest Generation." I guess we should call them something like "The Greatest Generation, Version I." They were amazingly self reliant and resilient people, and every time I fire up my old Johnson, I think of the lessons of the sea that my grandaddy taught me.

Here's to you, A.B.C.

Sounds just like my grand dad. Thanks for the read. We are some future generation's grand dads too.

 

[P 0 P E Y E]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Here's a story that I have reprinted exactly from a local newspaper article form Thursday, July 18th, 1974. A bit unrelated but I feel it pertains to the topic as far as how old farts "used to be":

Windy Rescue
by Bob Valenta

Vernon "Duck" Jennings didn't think much about it, to him it was just all part of being a good sportsman.
Dave Wilson, Sr. said it was much more than that. He said it was an effort that saved the lives of four stranded teenagers.
The two were fishing on Wright Patman Lake (previously known as Lake Texarkana) Sunday afternoon when a storm blew up.
The two cam in and were putting the boat on the trailer when they noticed a man with a concerned look.
They asked if they could help, and the man pointed to the open lake, explaining there were four teenagers out there in a boat that didn't look like it was moving.
Vernon saw through his binoculars that the four were waving for help. Vernon unloaded his boat and went across the open water and three to four foot waves to help the youths.
He brought them back to safety, even though his boat was half-filled with water by the time he got back to the ramp, said Dave.
The four had run out of gasoline and told the two Vivianites they were getting ready to jump out and start swimming to the nearest shore, despite the driving rain and high winds.
"Not many people would have done what Duck did," said Dave. He risked his life to save those four."
By the time the rescue was completed, the wind was blowing so strong, Dave said it took five men to load Vernon's boat on the trailer.


I found this newspaper article laminated in an envelope my Grandmother gave me before she moved to N. Carolina a few years ago. (I was just 2 yrs. old when this event happened) I asked my dad to tell me what happened and he said he and Dave Wilson (his boss at the time) had just arrived at the launch (they saw the storm coming and wisely hauled tail to the launch and loaded their boat) when they saw this guy walking back and forth, looking worried. My dad had a 16 ft. fiberglass boat with stick steering and a 50hp Johnson on it (he called them "hawg troughs".)
By the time he started back with the teenagers, the waves were so large they would come over his head and fill the boat, and the water would just rush over the transom of the boat and the motor would disappear. He said he had no idea how it kept running.
I guess it's no wonder I like Johnson/Evinrude motors so much!
I always love a good old fart story.
JBJ

Thanks for that JBJ

 

[P 0 P E Y E]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Hope to have not cast any disrespect for the Marine Police in my original post.

For the record, The Police, Fire Department, USCG, Army. Airforce, Navy Marines ( and a few others) are why we are able to live in freedom.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Stan the old man vs. Marine POLICE..

Hope to have not cast any disrespect for the Marine Police in my original post.

For the record, The Police, Fire Department, USCG, Army. Airforce, Navy Marines ( and a few others) are why we are able to live in freedom.

I don't think you did.