Family Lore

There are memories that become part of family lore.  They're stories that are told over and over again at dinner tables for years to come.  We had a collection of these as I grew up, stories about Grandpa Dave or when my parents were in high school.  Then there were stories about our family like the time that as little girls we had put every bow that we owned in my dad's hair only to have the missionaries knock on the door.  They're stories that are part of your family culture and experiences like these don't come around every day.  Do you have a collection of epic family stories too? 

When we were down in Outer Banks last week, we had one of those experiences.  I think we're all still laughing about it all this time later.

 Heber had wanted to go crabbing.  There is usually never enough time to fit in all the things we want to do so I didn't really worry about crabbing.  During one of the few quiet moments of the day, he went to a small local tackle store and got himself outfitted and asked around for a good place to go.  Later that afternoon, we followed a dirt trail over to the spot. 

Following instructions, Heber tied raw chicken to a string and flung it into the sound.  I have never seen anything quite like this but we all got in on the action, even his parents Randy and Penny.  One person would fling the chicken and slowly reel it in while the second leans over the dock with a net to capture the crabs.  This by itself is not usually what we're doing on a Saturday afternoon. 

We had a few near misses and then we started reeling them in two at a time.  Everybody caught one.
 

 His dad had one on the line that he knew was big.  "I think there must be three or four on there" he said.  Heber, the most successful netter, was leaning into the sound and eased his net around the bait and started pulling up.  He pulled and strained and lifted out a huge snapping turtle.  All the other people on the dock came running and we were laughing so hard.  The turtle, obviously, did not want to be caught and was putting up a big fight.  The two foot long turtle was angry so we eased him back into the water. 

 

 Each of us reeled something in.  All in all we caught 7 crabs and one snapping turtle, not too bad for an afternoon of fun.  So you see, one package of raw chicken, some string and a net led to freaking snapping turtle.  This is one for ages.