Teddy Burriss

Back in 1977, I had graduated from Poolesville High School and one of my best friends, Clark Brown still lived up the street from where I lived. We lived a few miles away from a pretty good sized river, the Monocacy River. There is an aqueduct at the river where most guys went fishing.

Back then Clark liked to do two things. Fish & drink beer. I liked to drink beer, but I do not like to fish.

I saw Clark in town early one Saturday and he asked me to go fishing with him. Let me repeat. I do not fish.

Clark said, “Come on, let’s go fishing. I’ll bring the beer.”

Now, I did like beer, actually I still do. So I agreed to go fishing as long as Clark brought the beer.

I met Clark that night down at the aqueduct. He was sitting on the bank with a tackle box, two fishing rods and a case of beer on ice. He had his line baited and in the river already.

I sat down on the bank and before I got to grab a beer, Clark pushed a fishing rod in my hand. “Go ahead, put some bait on the hook and cast a line,” he said to me. “Then you can have a beer.”

I knew the basics, so I grabbed a worm out of the bait box, slipped it on the hook, clamped a wait and bobbin to the line and cast out into the river.

Then, I got my beer. I was happy.

Sometime during the first beer, I pulled my line back in, fortunately with no fish on it, and I cut the hook from the line without Clark seeing this.

For the next 4 or 5 hours Clark pulled in fish after fish. Each time he pulled in a fish, I pulled in my line, pretended to check the bait or put more bait on the line, and then recast the line. Then I would get another beer.

Clark laughed his head off at me. You can imagine the fishing story that Clark told everyone. I told him I didn’t fish, and I didn’t.

We ended the night of fishing and drinking when the beer ran out.
(Disclaimer – I am not going to say we drove home. As you all know, I would never do that after drinking.)

Now, fast forward 20+ years later. One spring I visited some folks in Maryland and stopped by Clark’s house to say hello. Clark and I laughed about some of the things we did when we were teenagers and the fishing story came up.

I asked Clark if he remembered that he was the only one who caught any fish. He laughed at me when he remembered.

I told him what I had done. Clark stopped laughing and told me that I owed him a case of beer.

I still do. One day I will get him one. By the way, I still do not fish.

Another posting from Teddy Burriss. I hope you enjoyed this story.