Park Rill occupied a big portion of my young life while growing up. I found many activities in the creek, but the one I enjoyed most was fishing. The water way was divided by five beaver dams and each type of fish stayed in their own area. The carp and suckers lived and played in the slow moving area where there was little aquatic vegetation. Sometimes a carp would rise up out of the water in an attempt to score a tasty fly, then flop ungraciously back into the water with a resounding splash! The lack of vegetation also gave the carp areas in which to sun in the shallow reaches under a submerged dead fall where they could glide in and out of the sun. The trout, on the other hand, lived and played where the creek ran faster and the watercress grew, which gave them ample food supply for there were many insects which serviced the vegetation.

I had the creek mostly for my own use, although some of the neighborhood boys as well as some boys from town occasionally used it too but only on the weekends and during the summer. The rest of the time I had it all to myself. On Sundays, after church, I would quickly change, dig some worms, and drop my line into Park Rill. In fifteen minutes I had three speckled trout for lunch. I would clean them and give them to Auntie Kay(the name given to my Mother by one of my sister’s friends and the name I will use for these articles), and she would pan fry them in butter. The flesh of the speckled trout was pink and delicious so fresh. That was one of my pleasurable routines all summer long.