When I was a young boy, I lived in close proximity to both the Passaic River and the adjacent Dundee canal. Back then, the waters were always murky and polluted, but never the less, I went fishing almost every day, either alone, or with my friend Jimmy, whose parents owned the grocery store around the corner, where they butchered meat, sold cigarettes and filled ice cream cones with delicious ice cream for 5 cents for one scoop or 7 Cents for a double dipper...and chocolate sprinkles were a penny more.
Jimmy and his parents lived in back of the store in a tiny 4 room apartment, much more cramped than the 5 room house we lived in around the corner..... Jimmy was Catholic, I was Jewish...and we were both Hungarian......
After school, on weekends, and in the summer, we would get our fishing gear together, find some bait, either soft while bread, or juicy worms......and head down to the canal, which was only a block from both our houses....the river, however, was much further away, where the banks weren't too steep to descend.
The canal hosted a variety of fish: Sunfish, shiners...long and silvery, catfish with whiskers that reminded me of my Great Aunt PAula, eels, carp, and an occasional GOLD FISH, which was a golden carp., We would find snapping turtles, and regular turtles, and frogs.....and every once and a rare while, one might even find a bass.
I liked going fishing....and I always hoped I would catch something, especially when I was with JIMMY, as if was a completive sport...But I never really liked taking the fish off the hook, which I did......and I would throw the fish back into the water. While disengaging the hook from the captive fishes mouth, I looking into its eyes and saw the fear, the horror, the pain, and the pleading to let him go and live. Their lips always quivered, as they gasped for breath. I would throw them back in, never dreamed of eating them, and always felt a little guilty for making them experience pain and fear.
But I always wanted to catch a GOLDY... A golden carp. They were very rare.....but once in a while, someone would catch one......and always threw them back. Sometimes old Italian men, and black men would go fishing down at the river and bring their catch home to eat. They told me, they put them live in the bath tub for a few days, to get the poisons out of them.... all well and good, but then these men, didn't take a bath for a few days....and you know how they smelled, worse than the fish.
Yes I always wanted to catch a golden carp.....but always was happy that I didn't, because they were so mystical to me, I was scared to death of hurting them, as if I was putting a hook into some spiritual being, like an angel or a good spirit, and I certainly wouldn't want to have harmed them. I suffered from good home grown JEWISH guilt.We went fishing up to the 6th grade.....in the 7th grade, our school Public School #7, which is now leveled and replaced by a small park, was turned into a Middle School. Things changed, Jimmy and some of my other friends now was aware of the difference between Catholic and JEWS. Suddenly my best friend told me his parents said don't hang out with JEWS, they killed JESUS. Then the hurtful words of dirty JEW was added to Jimmy's vocabulary...and coming from your best friend. Really hurt.. There was no one to go fishing with anymore.....and I started outgrowing the need to go fishing...... and I gave up my youthful fishing career without ever catching the elusive Golden Carp. And Now, 5 decades later, I am very thankful that I never did catch one....which brings me to the story I am about to tell.
I am now the owner of a huge antique store in HOHOKUS NJ, on the HOHOKUS BROOK. At low tide, the brook, which is only about ten feet from my store, and maybe 14 feet below it.....is a stone lined gully, with water slowly trickling down....somewhat like a trout stream. But when there is a torrential rain, and snow melting up in the mountains, it becomes a vicious torrent, white capping over the rocks, like a mini Colorado river. It flows with such intensity, that it makes our building vibrate... The water comes up almost over the banks, and at that time, must be 14 feet or more.
We sit out side the store, and enjoy the scenery.... We have lots of squirrels , chipmunks, a fleet of ducks, moles, voles, sparrows come to visit......We throw bread, corn, and crackers to all the animals and enjoy the communing with nature.. A few weeks ago, I looked into the water, and saw something GOLDEN GLIMMERING..... I tried to focus my eyes. It was a GOLDEN CARP. A JAPANESE COY! But this was impossible, They do not inhabit fast flowing streams... But there it was....We threw bread to Goldy, it came checked it out, but refused it... We figured that someone threw their pet into the stream because they were moving and didn't just want to leave it to die in a pond without food.
We thought it wouldn't live a week. What would it eat? and this GOLDEN CARP was about 14 inches..maybe more.....day after day passed, and he was around every day..... The water often took him with the current that he couldn't fight the force..... Very often when the ducks weren't around, neither was GOLDY...Then the ducks would show up, GOLDY would follow. Goldy would swim right beneath them, and he didn't both them nor the ducks bother GOLDY. I watch GoLDY come and go for about three weeks...It was a mystical experience , seeing him glimmer for a distance. His tail gracefully swaying as he swam..but then there was the horrific news that HURRICAN IRENE was on her way, with 12 inches of rain promised...which meant the brook would rise, to 14 feet, and the force of the water, would sweep GOLDY downstream, maybe crush him on the rocks, disturb whatever food source he had....and remove this mystical creature from the HOHOKUS brook and my life.. The Saturday when Irene started, as the drizzle commenced, I looked out into the stream, and GOLDY was there. I said goodbye and felt a deep sense of sadness. I closed the door, and never expected to see him again.
The storm came, The brook overflowed its banks.For three says after the storm the water was very high, and muddy.... but when the water cleared......there was GOLDY, How he survived I have no idea.I cannot express the joy I felt seeing him again......and tonight, we are having another storm, the river is raging again, and I hope Goldy will be there again, to renew my hope in the goodness of the universe.
a WEEK PAST SINCE I SAW GOLDY.....THERE WAS EVEN A FISHERMAN ON THE BANKS OF THE BROOK..AND HE DISAPPEARED AND I WAS AFRAID HE CAUGHT GOLDY.....BUT THIS MORNING,, AFTER A LONG TIME, THE WATER SLOWED DOWN.....AND THE WATER BECAME CLEAR....AND THE SUN SHONE ON THE RIGHT ANGLE TO PIECE THE WARE AND EVEN ILLUMINATE THE ROCKS BENEATH...AND THIS MORNING, THE LIGHT OF THE SUN, SHONE BRIGHTLY AND THERE WAS GOLDY.....STILL ALIVE AND SWIMMING AGAINST THE THE STRONG FLOW OF THE BROOK. MY HEART WAS FILLED WITH JOY....THE MYSTICAL FISH RETURNED.
WHILE I AM BLOGGING, I AM ALSO WATCHING THE MISS UNIVERSE CONTEST...WHICH IS ALWAYS A HOOT TO ME. I CANNOT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.... ALL OF THESE WOMEN, FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, LOOK ALIKE. THEY ARE LIVING BARBIE DOLLS. ALL HHAVE THE SAME HAIR CUT....THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME CAPS ON THEIR TEETH.....THEY DRESS THEM ALIKE...... AND WHILE THE DIFFERENCE MIGHT BE SLIGHT, LIKE HAIR COLOR OR EYE SHAPE.....THEY ARE ALL COOKIE CUTTER STAMPED OUT CREATURES OF THE FEMALE GENDER.
NOW, I DONT KNOW IF IT IS SOME KIND OF CO0INCIDENCE...BUT ALL OF THEM SEE TO HAVE VERY LARGE NOSES.....I WONDER IF IT WAS THE LOW CAMERA ANGLE.....BUT ALL OF THEM SEEMED TO HAVE HUGE PROBOSCIS....,,,NOW THEY JUST SHOW THE TOP 16 OF THE naTIONAL cOSTUMES.....THESE WERE NOT NATIONAL COSTUMES, BUT COSTUMES WITH THE "FLAVOR" OF THE COUNTRY....THEY ALL LOOKED LIKE SOME very bazaar Drag Queen from another planet. The MISS Universe Contest is all so silly,political, and phony.....but yet, its fun...I cannot take it seriously...how can they say, that one girl is the most beautiful girl in the UNIVERSE.....
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