Can’t remember my date of birth, but I came from a large family of sisters and brothers, There were aunts, uncles and grand parents that went back farther than I can remember, we never had safety pins like those made today, Ours were bigger, much shinier and had more spring to them.
My first time in service, was to pin a diaper on a baby. I held that job for a long time, for three or four babies. As they grew up, I served in many campsites from having a note or a hanky pinned to a child’s clothing or to replace a broken garter belt hook, to hold up some stockings. I really like that job, I never knew if I was male or female, as we all looked the same.
I have been lost several times, but was always found again. Spent a lot of my time in a button can, in a sewing kit and hanging on a cloths hanger. I helped out in many emergency’s and saved the day a number of times. I have been used to pin a tail on a donkey. A note on a bulletin board and on several curtains to keep them closed. I have held patches in place to be sewed. And I made a number of fingers bleed. I never did like that job!
There was one job that made me famous and that when I was used as a fish hook. This boy of around eleven wanted to go fishing, He made a fishing pole from a willow tree and had found some old string, but he had no hook. Well an older friend gave him a small hook, but it was old and rusty. I caught fish with it, then one day I had a big one hooked on my line, and the hook broke. Away went the fish with the hook in his mouth. I didn’t know what to do. Then I remembered the pin on the strap of my coveralls. I removed it and bent it to look like a fish hook, but the worm wouldn’t stay on my hook. So I tied the worm to the hook like an Indian would tie a white man to a tree.
I tossed it into the water and the first fish had taken it at once. Then a second and a third and a fourth, I soon had more fish than I could carry home. The worm was gone with the first fish and I guess they were striking at the shininess of the pin. There were so many fish circling around my pin hook, in the water, I had to take it out of the water and let it lay on the bank. I was so excited that I decided I was going to become a fisherman when I grew up and catch all kinds of fish from streams, rivers and lakes. I might even go out in the ocean, on a boat and catch some really big ones.
Whenever there was fishing contests, I would enter them all. I never caught the biggest fish but I caught more fish than anyone else, big or small. The years went by and I did a lot of fishing, not always using my pin hook, but many other hooks. But my pin hook was always attached to my fishing pole.
Years later, when I was visiting my home, a fishing contest was being held, so I entered it. The contest was going to last for three days and the one that had caught the largest fish would win the contest. The prize was a new boat with a trailer, fishing gear from many companies, a camp trailer that would sleep a six or eight people.
On the first day, I went out to this lake around mid morning and the banks were lined with people fishing, There were hundreds of people fishing from boats on the lake. There just didn’t seem to be any place that wasn’t being used. There was an old boat dock that had wood so rotten, it looked like it would fall apart if someone walked on it, I took my old fishing pole and my shinny safety pin hook and made my way out to the end of this old dock. Dropped my hook into the water and the water started to churn like it was boiling. I didn’t even had the hook bated. That was when the game warden came to check my fishing license. Guess what, No license. He took my fishing pole away from me iand it had the largest fish ever caught in this lake on my safety pin hook.
I never won the contest, but my fishing hook is on display in a museum in one of our larger cities. And fisher men come from all around to talk with me and want to see my safety pin hook.
By: Ben R.
Sept. 26, 2011
My first time in service, was to pin a diaper on a baby. I held that job for a long time, for three or four babies. As they grew up, I served in many campsites from having a note or a hanky pinned to a child’s clothing or to replace a broken garter belt hook, to hold up some stockings. I really like that job, I never knew if I was male or female, as we all looked the same.
I have been lost several times, but was always found again. Spent a lot of my time in a button can, in a sewing kit and hanging on a cloths hanger. I helped out in many emergency’s and saved the day a number of times. I have been used to pin a tail on a donkey. A note on a bulletin board and on several curtains to keep them closed. I have held patches in place to be sewed. And I made a number of fingers bleed. I never did like that job!
There was one job that made me famous and that when I was used as a fish hook. This boy of around eleven wanted to go fishing, He made a fishing pole from a willow tree and had found some old string, but he had no hook. Well an older friend gave him a small hook, but it was old and rusty. I caught fish with it, then one day I had a big one hooked on my line, and the hook broke. Away went the fish with the hook in his mouth. I didn’t know what to do. Then I remembered the pin on the strap of my coveralls. I removed it and bent it to look like a fish hook, but the worm wouldn’t stay on my hook. So I tied the worm to the hook like an Indian would tie a white man to a tree.
I tossed it into the water and the first fish had taken it at once. Then a second and a third and a fourth, I soon had more fish than I could carry home. The worm was gone with the first fish and I guess they were striking at the shininess of the pin. There were so many fish circling around my pin hook, in the water, I had to take it out of the water and let it lay on the bank. I was so excited that I decided I was going to become a fisherman when I grew up and catch all kinds of fish from streams, rivers and lakes. I might even go out in the ocean, on a boat and catch some really big ones.
Whenever there was fishing contests, I would enter them all. I never caught the biggest fish but I caught more fish than anyone else, big or small. The years went by and I did a lot of fishing, not always using my pin hook, but many other hooks. But my pin hook was always attached to my fishing pole.
Years later, when I was visiting my home, a fishing contest was being held, so I entered it. The contest was going to last for three days and the one that had caught the largest fish would win the contest. The prize was a new boat with a trailer, fishing gear from many companies, a camp trailer that would sleep a six or eight people.
On the first day, I went out to this lake around mid morning and the banks were lined with people fishing, There were hundreds of people fishing from boats on the lake. There just didn’t seem to be any place that wasn’t being used. There was an old boat dock that had wood so rotten, it looked like it would fall apart if someone walked on it, I took my old fishing pole and my shinny safety pin hook and made my way out to the end of this old dock. Dropped my hook into the water and the water started to churn like it was boiling. I didn’t even had the hook bated. That was when the game warden came to check my fishing license. Guess what, No license. He took my fishing pole away from me iand it had the largest fish ever caught in this lake on my safety pin hook.
I never won the contest, but my fishing hook is on display in a museum in one of our larger cities. And fisher men come from all around to talk with me and want to see my safety pin hook.
By: Ben R.
Sept. 26, 2011
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