I normally come late to books, as in 10 to 30 or more years late. In the past year I’ve read, and enjoyed thoroughly, “Paddling to Winter” by Julie Buckles (published 2013), “What the River Knows” by Wayne Field (1996), and “Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon” by John Hildebrand (1988). So when it comes to recommending summer reading, I’m probably offering something you’ve long since consumed.
But I’ll add a title I’m reading right now, fresh off the press. That would be Cornerstone Press at UW-Stevens Point. “You Shoulda Been Here Last Week” is a collection of fishing stories by Ted Rulseh, just in time for the fishing season and vacations at the lake.
In down-home fashion, Rulseh spins fishing tales from his childhood in Two Rivers to his present home base on Birch Lake in northeast Wisconsin’s Oneida County. Rulseh recounts a “lifetime of angling’s joys, thrills and failures,” as the book cover puts it, with “moments of wonder, and treasured times with friends and family.”
I’ve been reeled in by Rulseh’s talent for description: “The evening wind is fading on Eagle Spring Lake, the water smoothing out so I can clearly see, in the sky’s bright reflection, the small circles of freshly sprouted lily pads floating on slender stalks. A red sun is setting into purplish haze …”
Rulseh recounts fishing for suckers as a boy, when sucker fishing was its own season, which was fleeting, lasting only a week or so, recalls the author. “When it was over, we stowed Uncle Dick’s net in the garage rafters, forgot about it, and turned to other pursuits, chiefly baseball behind the tavern.”
This isn’t a how-to fishing guide, or bragfest about fish caught, but instead it’s of everyday fishing stories with plenty of self-deprecating humor and confessions. “I had never caught a carp,” writes Rulseh. “Of all my failings as a twelve-year old, none weighed heavier than that. Being skinny and a bit of a weakling, being the last boy in the neighborhood to learn to swim, I could bear those burdens … But not having caught a carp—that wore on me.”
There is also the issue with the wife over live bait in the refrigerator—”You get those worms out of this house and keep them out”—and about the origin of the book’s title—”I can’t understand it,” the resort owner says. “The group before you was getting northerns right off the pier.”
There are the tender moments, including recounting fishing outings with his father when he was a kid. Rulseh writes of returning the favor so many years later, when “life’s circle swung around,” and the author and his three brothers took their aging and legally-blind dad fishing.
Writes Rulseh, “Before getting into the car for the trip home, Dad shook hands with each of us in turn. ‘This has been fun,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’ In truth, the debt of gratitude was all ours. Dad didn’t teach us much about how to catch fish, but he did teach us to love fishing. It was and is enough.”
Introspection keeps showing up in Rulseh’s book, of how fast summers are consumed by house and yard chores, and weddings and reunions, while fishing keeps getting postponed. But with his children grown and retirement around the corner, Rulseh daydreams about when he can write three words in big, red letters on a sheet of paper and tape it to the front door. I’ll let you read what those words are.
If you enjoy fishing, if you enjoy the water and the Northwoods mindset, this book is for your summer reading. It surely is a part of mine. The book is available in bookstores in Northern Wisconsin, through online sites such as Amazon, and from Cornerstone Press. For a personally autographed copy, order through Rulseh’s website https://thelakeguy.net.
Rulseh is also the author of “A Lakeside Companion,” and “Ripple Effects: How We’re Loving Our Lakes to Death.”
Switching gears, I was invited to participate in a poetry hike last month, even though my poetry efforts have been limited. The hike took place at the 125-acre Union Conservancy, a wooded gem of eight trails in the Town of Union just west of Eau Claire. Some hiking paths rise high above the Chippewa River for stunning overlooks.
About two dozen people hiked through the early spring woodlands, following trails rising and falling along the river and into valleys, starting and ending at a campfire in the spacious parking lot. Along the hike, four readers took turns reading their piece of poetry and from their books. Ken Szymanski read a humorous piece about flying a kite with his son (a tree eventually ends up flying the kite); Elan Mcccallum read four of her introspective poems; Jessi Peterson read several nature-themed poems; and I read my “To the Creek” poem, along with a couple of excerpts from my book.
One of Jessi’s poems gives thought to the mortality of fawns, and how we can protect the raptors taking advantage of that mortality. Here’s Jessi’s “Roadkill” poem, from her chapbook “Century Farm,” available at Dotters Books and The Local Store, both in Eau Claire.
Roadkill
Fawn, only just past spots, spewing still-wet bloody foam from its nose
and mouth, maybe warm, I don’t know.
Can’t bear to notice too much.
Belly already breached, flies
have congregated on the stench,
the spilt raveling of gut.
From the stop sign half a mile away
I saw the wheeling wings, the great settling,
then ungainly upheaval into oncoming traffic.
It’s a quiet road, but not that quiet.
I could have turned off, driven south
And done no harm, but no good either.
So I drove on, past it, made a u-turn, put on my flashers.
Walking back, I stretched a stray sock onto my hand,
maybe to breathe through, but mostly to drag that
lost life off to nestle in the ditch full of daylilies.
Safe from being struck again and again by wheels,
safe for an eagle to land on and feast.
So that’s the blog, taking a bit different direction this time. Happy summer reading.
Book author Ken Szymanski reads a short story from his phone on the Poetry Hike at Union Conservancy near Eau Claire in May.
Note: My book, “Soul of the Outdoors,” is available by contacting me at davegreschner@icloud.com or 715-651-1638. The book is also available through online book sellers, and at Wisconsin bookstores in Rice Lake (Old Bookshop), Eau Claire (Dotters), Menomonie (Dragon Tale), Hudson (Chapter2Books), Spooner (Northwinds), Three Lakes (Mind Chimes), Cable (Redbery Books),and Bayfield (Honest Dog), and in Duluth, Minn., at The Bookstore at Fitger’s.