Geezers corner

Sure, if the shanty is not properly anchored the wind does reach high enough speeds and force to move it.

who is crazy enough to actually go ice fishing?

Lots of people is the answer.

You need to remember that any good shanty has some sort of a heat producing device. Years ago it was a wood stove, nowadays it is more likely a propane gas heater. Therefore, it is not the same temp inside as out.

Also, every good ice fisherman that I have ever met carries a little "antifreeze" with them in their coat pocket.

Mind you, not to get drunk but rather to help stay warm.

One of my favorite movies all time is Grumpy Old Men.

Even though it based in Minnesota, the commonalities are amazing.

If you only look at the hunting, fishing and actual fun to be had, Minnesota is actually a pretty great State. Not as great as Wisconsin, but close.

It is the Vikings fans and their jealousy that end up ruining everything.

I remember the 60's Walking to school and back home.Uphill both ways and it's the truth!  We had to climb this big hill, walk about a 1/4 mile and then back down another honkin hill. Reverse to go back home. Snow up to the stop signs, Firestone Town & Country's on the back of the station wagon to get up Grandpa's driveway. Hockey where the field flooded and froze. Giants on TV Sunday.  Had to wait for Jack Whitaker and Summerall to see Packer highlights. Listening to the Celtics and Johnny Most on my little Panasonic ball radio. Shoveling snow on snow days to make money to buy a new Hot Wheels car. Good Times

I'm maybe not quite geezer status at age 48, but enjoy hearing the stories from "back in the day".  It is sort of amazing just how poor my timing was coming into this world as it relates to being a Packers' fan.  Born in July of 1969 on the day of the moon launch, I was alive only for Vince Lombardi's one season with the Washington Redskins.  So in theory I am a "child of the '60s" but my first real memories are from maybe 1972-1975 and there are very few memories left in my brain from that era.

I was lucky enough to have a great grandfather born in 1889, who was alive until I was 10 years old in 1979.  The people from that generation are the ones with probably the greatest stories to tell, although they are all gone now. To go from horse and buggy in their younger days, surviving 2 World Wars, and then seeing man rocket to the moon had to be an incredible experience.

We would go ice fishing all winter long when I was a kid. We had a shack we would leave on a local lake known for its large population of walleye. There was a small propane heater in the shack and it had a flat top on it so we could reheat burgers wrapped in tin foil for lunch. Four people could fish inside the shack with jig poles and we would set up tip-ups outside and away from the shack that my Dad rigged with a light so the light would shine if a fish was on the line. That really worked well at night. Some days/nights we'd slay the walleyes and others we'd get skunked. This was before the days of Vexilar or Marcum fish finding technology came into being. Late February or early March we'd have to go out to the lake and pull the ice shack off the lake so it wouldn't fall through the thinning ice. My Dad and his brothers made the shack so it could come apart at the corners for storage, which was pretty cool, in and of itself. I remember those days as some of the best times I ever spent with my Dad and his brothers. 

I attended a one room school with eight grades.  The 2 mile walk was the highlight of the day.  Couple neighborhood dogs were always junkyard ornery.

The his/her outhouses were an extravagance which doubled the maintenance, or supply of Sears Roebuck catalogs.  As the  years flew by I grew into getting there early to fire the wood stove.  We had electricity and running water albeit requiring hand pumping.  

I still feel my parents invented home schooling.  Thank you Mom and Dad.

The term geezer is all relative to how old the person who says it thinks.  Several years ago one of my daughters was having a party and the kids were playing "Wordsters" where you try and get a person to say a word by giving clues but there are several words or phases you can't use. One of the guys said, "Your dad is one."  His word....... geyser.   I was 45 at the time.  He was 17. 

Yup, we had an outhouse when I was a kid on one farm where we lived. Dang cold in a Wisconsin winter. And we had something fancy: a water pipe into my brother's bedroom. That first summer we pumped it by hand, then got the pipe put in just before winter. Had to leave it running just a little on many winter nights so it wouldn't freeze up. 

The first time deer hunting with my dad was memorable. We get up really early, head out into the woods just as it's starting to get light, and run into a group of city idots who were playing a transistor radio on mega loud. So much for even seeing a deer that day!

CHI (bastards) prolly give CLE their only W this week, but here's a cool pic.

Rivalry with respect.