Fishing on Spring River, 1956

Uncle Walt Martin and wife Annabelle, along with sons Walt Jr., Wallace, Larry and Jimmy, came to visit on a summer vacation from California and their home on the Mojave Desert near Death Valley.
We went fishing on Spring River with the entire family, including Annabelle's mother, Mrs. Crandall.
All of us were getting bites and bringing in, well, crawdads, large crawdads. We caught a few small fish, but by and large it was crawdads. Walter thought maybe after we tossed them back in that we were catching the same ones again. He proposed we toss them far up the bank behind us.
As time passed and bites slowed, each of us begin moving up and down the bank seeking greener waters.
I moved around so much I found myself back where we had all started as more or less a group. Mrs. Crandall was still there, sitting with her large frame and her legs straight out. Heavy as she was, she must have decided that once she flopped down she was going to stay put. The problem was as I noticed by approaching the scene was that all the crawdads we had tossed upbank were now slowly crawling back to the water and she was in the path of a good half dozen or so of the pincered lot. I didn't expect that they would actually do her any physical harm, but I was also sure that when they went from blindside to full view she would be startled beyond recall.
Figuring the best thing would be to warn her since she had time to remove herself from her current position, I said, "Mrs. Crandall, some crawdads are headed your way."
She raised her head some and looked out at the waters.
"No," I said. "Behind you."
At that instant she spied one from the corner of her left eye as she turned her head sideways. She let out a grunt and kind of squirmed and scooted forwards slightly.
"Help," I hollered, realizing she had sat long enough that she was not going to be able to get to her feet on her own and that I was not going to be able to handle the balance of the load on my own.
Uncle Walt and some others arrived, appraised the situation, laughed and helped her to her feet.
We ended the day all having a good time and taking home a few frying-size fish.

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