Minnesota Fishing Trip - 2018

The group decided to do another Minnesota fishing trip but this time, instead of portaging into the boundry waters, we decided to take our boats and fish Lake Winnibigoshish.  Lake Winnie, as it is commonly called, is located in north central Minnesota near the town of Deer River.  Winnibigoshish means "dirty" water in Objibwe (the local native American tribe) but it is anything but dirty.  The water is crystal clear and you can see the bottom in most places.  Interestingly, it is an impoundment which dams up the Mississippi River whose start is Lake Itasca, about 60 miles to the west.

There were five in our group, only two of which went on the canoe trip last year.  R.B. and I had made that trip but we were looking forward to a somewhat safer, less stressful time.  R.B.'s friend since high school, Ronnie, was the third member of our team and he and R.B. supplied the boats.The fourth member was Clint, Ronnie's cousin, who lives in the Oklahoma City area.  Clint's friend, Denton, rounded out the group.

R.B. and I left Mannford about 8 am on Thursday, June 7, and the other three guys left Morrison about the same time.  The plan was to meet in Owatonna, Minnesota, go to Cabela's, for last minute items, then spend the night and caravan to Lake Winnie on Friday.  We were running late, however, and didn't get to Cabela's until the next morning.  We then drove the remaining 4 1/2 hours to our cabin at the Northland Lodge at the lake.

We fished hard Friday and caught a few walleyes, northerns, and largemouth bass but not a large number.  Saturday was a repeat of Friday with a few fish caught but not a lot.  Sunday was a rainout and we fished Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

All in all we caught six species of fish: walleyes, northerns, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, and yellow perch.  Most of the bass and northerns were caught on artificial lures, the walleyes and yellow perch were caught on live bait.  Unlike in Oklahoma, leeches are a popular bait up there and I really like to fish them because they are extremely hardy and stay on the hook good.

Thursday morning the 14th, we got up early and headed for Oklahoma.  We drove all day and got back to Mannford about 9 pm.  That was a long haul!

My measure of a good trip is being able to say the next day that you would do it again.  I could say that about this trip although I would do a few things differently next time.  Certainly I would drink less whiskey - the five of us drank four gallons in six days!  I'm just beginning to recuperate.

The Vehicle Accident

An insurance claims adjuster told me once that the odds are you will have a minor accident every ten years and a major one every forty years.  I got my major one out of the way early, in 1967.

I was working as a welder's helper at National Tank Co. and was on my way home from work about 5:00 pm one December day.  I was in Fisher Bottom about three miles west of Sand Springs on Highway 51.  As I was often prone to do, I was "tailgating" the car in front of me.  Suddenly, he swerved into the bar ditch and there was a Mustang in my lane coming right at me!

Apparently, I thought I had a better chance of missing him by going left, because that's what I did.  Unfortunately, my maneuver wasn't successful and we collided.  The driver of the other car was Maurice Rogers McSpadden, a disc jockey for a local radio station, who went by the name "Boomer".  His car wound up on it's top in the bar ditch and my came to a stop on the highway, still right side up but badly damaged.  In fact, both cars were "totalled".

In those days, we didn't have EMT's or paramedics so the local funeral home ambulance showed up.  I sat in the front passenger seat holding my arm, which was broken, and McSpadden was on a stretcher in the back. I remember that the untrained attendant told the driver that he thought McSpadden was dead.  They transported us to what was then called Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital (now OSU Medical Center).

Someone passing by the scene of the accident recognized my car and called Mom and Dad and told them about it.  On their way to the hospital, they had to pass by the cars, which were still there.  When Mom saw the shape my car was in, she was sure that I must be dead!

Later that evening, the highway patrolman who had investigated the crash came to the hospital to talk with me.  I told him what had happened and that coincided with his initial thoughts.  While I was laying there with a broken arm, however, he did chew me out for not wearing my seatbelt!  I was surprised to find out that, while McSpadden had suffered numerous facial injuries, he was not critically wounded.

I had to have surgery to repair my arm since the break was where it could not be set.  However, I had no problems with either it or the follow up surgery to remove the pins that the doctors had put in.

The accident did have a significant impact on my life.  It provided me with the means and motivation to go back to school at Oklahoma State.  I had dropped out in 1966 after two years of having fun!  The settlement I received from the wreck, $10,000, was a huge sum back then, at least to me.  It was enough to pay my tuition and living expenses till I graduated.  The motivation certainly was helped by having been a welder's helper for a couple of years.

I never talked to Boomer McSpadden after the accident.  I always wondered whether the wreck had as much impact on him as it did on me.  Some 20 years later, my wife, Louise, and I were at the Tulsa State Fair and KVOO radio had a booth there.  We walked into the booth and there he stood.  I walked up to him, introduced myself and Louise, and told him how we were linked.  He just stood there like he was unable to speak and after about 30 seconds of awkwardness, we turned around and left.  To this day, I don't know whether he was afraid I was angry at him or whether he was traumatized by hearing who I was.

Mr. McSpadden died in 1999 at the age of 54.  Did our accident somehow shorten his life?  It seems that the older I get, the more questions I want to answer.