Afterglow 2005 - Day 7
James was quite proud of his catch, even though it would only feed a small animal like a cat or a raccoon. I think that it was the nostalgic aspect of fishing that made him happier than the fish itself. I know of James' experiences but I can only speak for myself when I make the claim that I haven't fished since I was a youngster and only get the opportunity to fish once a year at Afterglow. It's always great to come here and just slow everything down and relax.
As you saw in the last video, James threw his fish back because it wasn't deemed a "keeper." Few fish have that status in Afterglow Lake, so the purpose of fishing here is mainly for recreation. James certainly enjoyed it.
Tim played guitar for the family members hanging around. I believe in this picture he was playing a Cat Stevens song that featured (Uncle) Greg on lead vocals. Greg loves his classic rock, even more so when Tim plays for him to sing along.
By this time in the week, most everyone is tired from all of the hardcore vacationing. Most people take Friday night off of Afterglow activities to spend the night in their cabin taking it easy. Not the Kurutz/Reck clan. We came out to the fire en force and easily dominated the crowd in numbers. Now that I think about it, it's not that impressive because we already have more numbers than any other family there. We got to hang out with a roaring fire, which felt
I was set to participate in one of two campfire traditions (the other one would come later) - roasting marshmallows. By this time all of the adults had left and it was up to the kids to keep the fire going. Every year on the last night, we the kids try and stay up as late as possible, and sometimes we even make it until dawn. Since I had already done that (see this page if you don't believe me) I didn't really feel the need to stay awake until I was too tired to do anything else. Mark (in the picture on the right) wasn't drunk, although he appears that way. He was simply too tired to keep his eyes open and was only still hanging out at the fire because he refused to be old and go to bed before the kids did.
James could be doing two things - he might be embellishing on the size of the fish that he caught or he could be telling about the time he had a chance encounter with a giant grizzly bear. Whatever it was, I didn't notice because he was doing it behind my back and scaring the little children.
Before you get worried, let me assure you that Jenny and Mark are not being incinerated by the fire. You need to use your skills of depth perception (unless you are a patch wearing pirate, then I apologize for asking the impossible) to analyze the picture before coming to rash conclusions.