Back on the river (with Max)

There is something about being back amid the crystal-clear swirls of the White River that causes my heart to beat slower and what remains of my mind to steadily free itself from every hint of static, one concern at a time.

For me, this river has always been the most restorative place on Earth, and I settle into one of those riverside pink cabins at Gaston’s White River Resort three miles below the Bull Shoals Dam.

For the sixth year in a row, 20 writers and photographers gathered at Gaston’s to compare notes over two days. In many ways, this getaway, which boasts of being America’s number one trout resort, is indeed a jewel in the state’s crown of tourism draws. And every one of these media types from seven states agreed.

Those who have followed these scribblings over the years know I’ve told you about the Yoda-like philosophies of owner and host Jim Gaston, who now has a state visitors center named in his honor just across the dam. You’ve also heard of the heroic exploits of the dozen or so veteran guides—men like Frank Saksa, Joe Hicks and Paul Jones—who’ve earn their livings for decades on this river.

The fact is nothing much, except the visitors and the water levels, changes much in this scenic valley. And we communicators who come and go each spring are always eager to arrive and reluctant to point our vehicles toward home.

This year, I fished with Saksa, Hicks and Jones as guides and our outdoor editor Bryan Hendricks, as well as Ron Wong of Memphis. Ron actually knew what he was doing with a rod and reel, as evidenced by his two individual St. Jude’s Bass Classic championships over the years. That’s not to say Bryan doesn’t know his stuff, too. But he and I are so much alike in many ways that it’s hard for me to fully (and properly) acknowledge all his proven skills as a worldclass catcher of rainbow and brown trout. Besides that, everyone always catches their limit of both at these reunions.

The older I get, the more these kinds of gatherings of friends and acquaintances seem to matter. Larry Rea of Memphis, who has a morning AM radio outdoor program, once again put this event together.

Perhaps it’s the blend of the magnificent outdoors, the bald eagles and blue heron rookeries, and the trout sizzling in a cast-iron skillet during an open-fire shore lunch that set the idyllic ambiance that lingers so indelibly in our memory. But it’s also folks such as Ron Branaman, Keith Larson, Cheri Krug, Clint Gaston, Gail Hodges and Kim Rebout who draw paychecks from this place. They all bend over backwards to make sure that happens.

Speaking of business, this year, I listened one evening to David Gray from Missouri talk of the value of entrepreneurship in America and how that trait must be preserved at all costs. “It’s at gatherings of folks like these that ideas are born and nurtured into successes,” he said. Gray should know since he owns and manages Fishingtacklejunction.com and has spent the past two years or so (with a proven rod technician) developing a new fishing rod called Carbonx. This year, I also took Max along for his first view of a river and the gentle flocks of geese and ducks that live on and around Gaston’s. You’d ordinarily expect a golden retriever (who’s still not 3 years old) to sprint headlong into the water after a gaggle of geese. But being the shy boy he is, Max sat and stared for two full minutes in canine amazement at all those quacking, honking birds as they scampered into a lake near the airstrip.

It was obvious from the way Max sprinted back and forth as fast as he could along that open, mile-long strip that he appreciated the magic of this place as much as his ol’ dad has since he was his dog’s age.

5-year-old and knife?

I’m still wondering what the deeper story behind that 5-year-old boy who was wielding a knife at an after-school program in Fayetteville last week. While the child wasn’t officially part of the School Kid’s Connection program being held on the playground at Asbell Elementary School, he apparently had a knife he was waving around, the news story said, even chasing other kids with it in his hand.

I can understand how something this out of the ordinary could make a news story the next day, but it still smells a little to me like a case of a kid just being a kid around other kids. He apparently had wandered to the playground with the knife he’d taken from his nearby apartment, unbeknownst to his mother, police said.

She told police she didn’t know how he got the knife. Police said the boy denied trying to stab other students and said that he was just using the knife to poke holes in the ground. In the end, police let everyone head home and the moment of excitement quickly passed.

What’s most sad to me in this little dust-up on the playground was that it ever became a news story.

But with today’s headlines filled with stories of misguided students somewhere doing much worse on school grounds, even this sort of seemingly harmless interaction by a 5year-old is bound to get publicized.

And I’m certainly not one to say it shouldn’t be.