GONE FISHING

On Jan.18, 1973 I entered EPA’s Chief Counsel’s Office to discuss a matter of business. After our business was concluded he asked if I had seen the Front page of the Boston Globe. Not yet I replied. I should tell you first, my father’s recreational passions were the L St. Bath house, walking for miles on end and fishing. When he was younger he would take his fishing rod to the Sugar Bowl at the end of the wooden pier near the Head House, an area which we now call Pleasant Bay. When the 1938 Hurricane destroyed the pier he moved on to Castle Island. As he got older his distance to fish became shorter and shorter. Let’s get back to the Front Page of the Globe.  “Here take a look. Maybe you know this guy. He has the same last name as yours.”

There was my father at the “M” St. Beach puffing on his pipe. A photographer was on his way to an assignment when he spotted my father sitting and relaxing without a care in the world. Being a professional he stopped his car and took the shot of his lifetime. The editor liked it so much he featured it on the front page. The photographer probably never got another placement like that for the rest of his career. My father was 80 at the time and lived to almost 103 years old. Maybe there is something to fishing after all.