Coastal Memories

As noted before, Freshwater is for Sissies, which might not be politically correct, but as label, is as much fun as anything else.

I was attracted to the logo, unsure of why. Skull, crossed fishing poles?

Pirates implied.

Eventually, I phoned up bubba¹, and asked. Two ideas sprouted from his head, like Athena from Zeus’s head, the first was the Latin inscription² across the bottom of the current iteration of my business card, and the old logo I loved, crossed fishing-poles and cow skull³.

Similar, but not the same.

Despite the pandemic, I’ve had an opportunity to fish both freshwater and saltwater this year. No questionable trips, for sure, but lakeside for a few days, old roots showing up, and then bayside a few times, too, and several times with the Pirates of the Bay — and his slogans, which I love, “Freshwater is for sissies.”

Going back more than 30 years now, don’t think I have this on anything but a floppy disk, if that, it was a logo I did, based on some science fiction I was reading, an image of a skull with glowing red eyes, over crossed lightening bolts. A special kind of pirate flag.

Me’n’bubba, we placed the idea of the crossed fishing poles and a cow skull back in a trailer park, but best he could do was guess at who he was dating, in order to get an accurate time-stamp for the idea.

Coastal Memories

Best guess for the logo idea was around Y2K or a little later. There’s a Virgo, a Pisces, a Libra, several Gemini, and some smattering of Sagittarius in the mix. As always, I’m partial to the November Sagittarius — but that could be me.

Digging around archives⁴, trying to place a date of inception, trying to figure out where the ideas come from? Too much is washed away in a hazy fog along the banks of Austin’s old Town Lake, fishing pole in hand, memories mired in the river bank’s mud.

Mercury. Mercury and Mars, the foretold pattern of the planets.

I had to wonder about the coozie itself, according to Capt. Doug, we were discussing him installing a beer-holder on his trolling motor, and he observed that, “If you your beer is getting warm? You’re not drinking it fast enough.”

He just laughed, his laughter almost echoing across the bays.

Then, for one moment, he was totally quiet.

“Hear that?” He asked.

I nodded.

“Surf. That’s the tide on the other side of the dunes. You can hear it from here.”

That inshore fishing is some of the best, entertainment, value for action, just sheer fun. Seriously?

“Freshwater is for sissies.”

1. Not “Bubba,” but “bubba.” ↩
2. Laeti edimus qui nos subigant! ↩
3. Like a family crest — only better. ↩
4. Looking back on 7 years? ↩