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| SENIOR SOCIAL AT THE LAKESIDE PAVILION |
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| WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS? |
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| A HUGE FISH TRAP NET |
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| HOISTED UP BY WINCH TRUCKS |
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| REPAIRED INCH-BY-INCH, BY HAND |
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| OLDEST FISHING FAMILY |
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| PART OF THE HALVORSON FLEET |
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| WORK HARD, PLAY HARD |
Friday, 7:30 AM. 59 degrees, wind SSW and calm at ground level but high gray clouds are blowing in from the west and the barometer is down, so we may get a shower on the opening day of Applefest.
Things are really hopping in town now, the carnival rides were busy as it grew dark last night and the vendors are driving in and setting up downtown.
We went to the Senior Social for pie, ice cream and coffee after lunch yesterday at the Lakeside Pavilion. I almost turned back when we arrived behind several buses and vans bringing old folks from the nursing homes, saying to Joan as the wheelchairs and walkers rolled out, “I don’t think I want to be here, it might be catching.”
But we found the gaily decorated pavilion full to overflowing and we sat with folks we knew and the pie was as good as it could get and the recorded music about our style. So there was indeed some dark humor in discovering we were with contemporaries. And looking around me I could see it is certainly true that, “inside every old person, there is a young person…wondering what the hell happened!” And as I have said before, I will do almost anything for apple pie.
Driving around with the top down on north Hwy J on yesterday’s beautiful aftrnoon I noticed again a big open field with a structure of tall telephone poles that I had always assumed without looking closer was an old baseball field or something similar, but yesterday there were a lot of trucks and unusual activity so we drove in to take a look at what was going on.
Which was…a crew working on repairing commercial fishing nets, which were hoisted up by winch trucks onto the structure, and the enormous fish trap nets inspected and repaired, inch by inch.
I talked to the people dong the work, several brothers and a sister, the current generation of the Halvorson family, one of the oldest commercial fisheries in the area. They have equipment storage and repair facilities in Bayfield but now do their fishing out of Cornucopia, twenty miles up the shore to the west, and have their processing plant and retail outlet at the harbor there.
We were on our way to the Village Inn at Corny anyway so we stopped and took photos of their fleet of seven fishing boats and their shop. They have the best smoked fish in the area, in my opinion, as they smoke fish the old fashioned way, with wood smoke, no chemicals involved. Also, they use live-trap nets, not gill nets, which kill the fish. With trap nets they can take their catch live, up to their limit or need, and release the other caught fish unharmed. Live trapping also means fresher fish. It is the most environmentally responsible method of commercial fishing.
Have you ever watched “The Most Dangerous Catch” on TV? Commercial fishing is hard, hazardous work, and these folks are tough as nails. Their equipment and processing plant are spotless, things of functional beauty. The great lake is still an economic resource to many, not just something pretty to look at and play on.
Lucky is a bit better, but it is becoming obvious that he did not just hurt himself falling, but has little strength left in his limbs because of old age.
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