Imporvise

   I have mentioned before that both Stanley and I never had any problems coming up various plans and ideas and yes I freely admit that several of them didn't turn out quit the way we had envisioned them. There were a few ideas (less plans) that did work out and I thought I might list a couple of them here, just to prove we weren't complete idiots when we were kids.

   One benefit of wondering all over the country down home was that we knew where all the trash dumps were. People were a long way from being "eco-friendly" back then. We didn't have any garbage pickup in Schulter, Pleasant Valley or Coalton so everyone either burned their trash or when they a load of stuff that wouldn't burn they tended to just haul it out somewhere and dump it off the side of hill. You'd be surprised at the number of usable things a couple of boys could find in those dumps. Between the two of us we supplied a couple of dozen camps and "hideouts" scattered through the woods with pots, pans and skillets.

   We would use gallon size glass jars as minnow traps for fish bait. All you had to do for that was poke a hole about an inch in diameter in the lid, add a little bait and weight it down in the water. Minnows weren't much smarter than we were about getting their self into a place they couldn't get back out of. We also watched for chicken wire. It seemed like we could always find at least a few pieces. When we found a piece that was at least six feet or longer we could use it as a seine for gathering fish, crawdads and whatever else we could get out of the local ponds, creeks or rivers. The other good thing to use chicken wire for was crawdad traps. All you need to do is roll a piece into a tube and add a piece to make a flat end. On the other end you roll a cone with an opening a couple of inches across, Put the small end into the trap and wire the edges closed then just add a little bait and sink it close to the bank.