the day the crawdads were banned.

I think for the next 4 months I’m going to have two days you can look forward to on Teaching Sean. Tuesdays I think will be story day and Fridays will be the day I add to my memoirs. Today is Friday.
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When I was in the 6th grade I was part of a club called the Stormin’ Mormons. There were five of us n the group: Ryan, David (Ryan’s little brother), Ben, Matt and I. I have no clue where any of these people are today, but during the summers of 5th and 6th we were inseparable. We were often found on Blacow Elementary’s campus chasing each other and play a form of cops and robbers. Occasionally our mother would let us go on a bike ride to Lake Elizabeth. (about 2 miles away) With us we would take poles, string, and hot dogs.

Just past Lake Elizabeth are two sets of train tracks. Both tracks have bridges that go over a creek. (Though looking at google maps today – one bridge seems to be missing.) Under those bridges was prime crawdad land. Four of us would fish while one guy got to be look out. The look out was usually there to watch for coming trains. If we were smart we would get out from under the train, but actually what we were waiting for was to run up and put pennies on the tracks. I say if we were smart because if you have ever been under a bridge when a train rolls over 5 feet above your head it is the loudest thing you will ever experience. It is an all-consuming roar.

One day we decided that instead of catching and releasing them, we were going to see how many we could catch and we would bring them home to my house. There was a sleepover at my house that night. So as dusk neared we gathered up our haul from the day and biked home. Mom was doing something at the time, so she didn’t see us bring them in. We took them to my room where I had a working fish aquarium. We watched them for a while before Mom called us to dinner. We washed up, went to dinner and generally forgot about them.

The night was spent talking and telling stories and telling jokes. We gathered in the back room and eventually invited sleep to over take us.

The next thing we all experienced was my mother screaming. We awoke to her screaming in the hallway a few rooms over. We scrambled out of our sleeping bags and rushed through the dining room and kitchen to the hallway. In the hallway was my mother, but between her and us was also a 5-inch crawdad snapping its claws at her. Mother did not look happy. Matt grabbed the escapee as the rest of us brushed past my mother and went to my room. Once there we discovered a prison break in the act. The bigger crawdads were stepping on the smaller ones and escaping out of the aquarium.
Mother ordered their immediate departure. So prior to breakfast, the crawdads were gathered up and taken back to the lake. When we returned we were told that we weren’t allowed to have crawdads in the house ever again. And we never did.