Granddaddy’s Eyes

Tracy Jones 10-09-08

               My oldest brother is doing some writing now, after retiring from teaching school. He recently wrote an article about our Granddaddy and asked for any memories we might have of him. I should not have any problems with this because my wife has told me several times that I am a lot like him. You see, He was a person that said what he meant and meant what he said. I suppose that is a good way to say he was somewhat hardheaded, contrary, and set in his ways. How could I not love a man that I am like so much?
               One Sunday after lunch some of us were sitting at the kitchen table where he was telling us about a fishing trip he had the day before. I loved to hear about his fishing trips. Sometimes he would go to Uncle Leo’s pond in his one man boat. Even though he shouldn’t have gone by himself, at his age; Grandma couldn’t keep him from going.
A lot of people in that time called large mouth bass “trout”. Granddaddy told us about how he had caught several trout that day and for some reason they would get off before he landed them. One of them was a very large fish he had missed several times before.
His favorite bait was a cream colored popping bug. He, like most fishermen didn’t tell everyone what he fished with. I felt proud of the fact he had confided with us about his favorite bait. One of his younger sons got his fishing equipment for us to look at the bait. While we were admiring the popping bugs, someone noticed that the hook point was broken off on the one he was using.
Granddaddy had glasses and wore them all the time. But, because of his age and some other factors, he still couldn’t see as well as he should have. After his son explained to him why the fish were getting off, he felt better about his fishing trip. You see, he hadn’t lost his touch after all.
Granddaddy had glasses and couldn’t see that the hook on his favorite bait was broken. Today a lot of Christians have spiritual glasses and still can’t see the broken hooks. This could be a reason why some of the fish they are catching are getting away. Maybe a lot of us need to have a spiritual eye exam so we can better see and catch the ones that are getting away.