When a kid’s world was really a kid’s world
Just back from visiting my sister Grace in Indian Harbour Beach, on the ocean side of Melbourne, Florida, we began reminiscing about our childhood days on Hilton Head before the majority of the country had ever heard of the island.
A bigwig in the advertising scene on Madison Avenue in New York City, he made a call for his family of five children that very few people in a similar situation would make. With only two children myself, I can’t imagine making such a radical move. I guess I am just too cautious, but if I were able to go back for a do-over, I believe I would throw that caution to the wind.
Don’t get me wrong because I had one of the most unique and exciting childhoods possible. Of course, we didn’t have cellphones or the internet, but finding things to do was easy as pie. With the fishing bug already ingrained in me by the time I was 5 or 6 years old, this new world around me was something to behold. Mostly dirt roads and but a handful of kids around my age, I pretty much had to create my own fun. Learning how to call gators to me, of which they were a dime a dozen, may seem a bit reckless, but, darn it, I had fun calling mama gators away from their young ’uns and then trying to catch one or two of her babies in a crab net before she would try to chase me down.
Other activities that would alarm today’s parents included catching rattlesnakes, riding bikes helmetless and catching huge sharks off the beach right in the midst of visiting tourists. I even had an ice sailboat that I replaced the blades with wheels, turning it into a sand sailor. Much larger than typical sand sailors, it could reach 50 to 60 mph on a windy day. Needless to say, it was banned from the beach when I took out a man and his dog.
Horseback riding was another popular pastime for us kids thanks to the Depkin family, another early settler family with kids. Always bareback, we would race down the beach, ride into the surf and try to knock one another off. Once again, I was severely scolded by the golf pro for galloping across the Sea Pines golf course. Not being a golfer, how was I supposed to know you were supposed to replace things called divots, and I mean lots and lots of divots?
With my two grandchildren, Ben, 10, and Alice, 12, living next door, I love telling them how different things were while I never really grew up. Ben especially sits there, eyes wide in awe, when I tell him the good and the bad Collins growing-up stories. To me, kids are the best. As you may know, I part-time guide newcomers with boats, whether it’s learning our waters or how and where to catch fish, but hands down, it’s the kids that I enjoy teaching the most.
I can’t count how many kids I have mentored over the years, but almost every single one of them has come back to me years later thanking me for putting the great outdoors at the top of their list of things to do. Some say it’s fishing, others say exploring, but whatever their outdoor passion is, it got them off staring blankly at a 3-by-6-inch screen all day, every day.
When I decided what to write about on my way home from Florida, it was the kid part that got me thinking. How can I get more kids outdoors and especially into fishing? I can’t think of one kid that I have taken fishing for the very first time who wasn’t totally hooked on angling after he or she caught a first fish.
Having helped with several kid fishing events, I want to devote my time, along with some of my connections, to create brackish lagoons for kids only. So many developments in the area have lagoons fed by saltwater, and through stocking and saltwater fish entering these waters on incoming tides, kids could catch just about anything. Set them up as catch-and-release, and fish like redfish, trout and flounder can reach mammoth sizes.
If you are with me, then contact me and let’s get this program rolling. Believe me when I say fishing can change your life. I am living proof of that.
Collins Doughtie is a 60-year resident of the Lowcountry, is a sportsman, graphic artist, and lover of nature. collinsdoughtie@icloud.com.
