See You on the Lake
Special friends are few and far between and hard to keep
Woody Cooper

Every person needs at least one special friend all of his life. Even if we do have a special friend many things can come about to change that. A special pal may change from age to an older age but we still have that need for that friend. We usually form a special friendship shortly after we start to school. We may have what we think of as very close friends but that usually goes away and we have many friends but only one very special friend. The practice of having a special friend should never be dropped. We need that special person to give us strength during severe times that we all face during our lifetime.

There are many reasons that a special friend may fade out of your life but it is just as important to find that new friend. Your special friend may move out of town. The friend may have different changes of life as you get older and the two of you may decide to go separate ways. The likes and dislikes of your friend and you may begin to sharply differ on many subjects and you go separate ways. Maybe one becomes interested in athletics and the other does not or one may go overboard for some cute little thing and find her a lot more interesting. Happens. Little boys need a buddy to go see the hero cowboy whip up on the mean guys each Saturday at the local movie. TOM MIX, BUCK JONES HARRY CAREY, KEN MAYNARD, BOB STEELE and BUSTER CRAB were our heroes and we could talk about them forever. We had rubber guns(homemade) that we used as six shooters as we emulated our movie idols the rest of the week after watching the screen cowboys. We never did understand why the cowboy had to have lovesick girl friend show up late in the movie and almost ruin our whole day's entertainment. We just did not need any one with long hair and perfume early in our boyhood scheme of things. Even little girls need a pal to giggle with while playing with their dolls while waiting to grow big enough to steal your buddy away from you. It always happens to all. I can remember my first buddy as if it were yesterday instead of the eighty years ago that it happened.My parents died almost at the same time and we seven children were moved from Arkansas to Oklahoma and split up with kin folks. I did not know a single person including the kin folk that we children were delt to. There was a family that had just moved to the same town from East Texas and they were only a half block from our house. The father was a railroad man and he was in charge of working on the rails of the route. He and his three man crew would chug out each morning on their little railway cart to work on the rails. The school was a block the other way and the new buddy walked right by my house on the way to school. We met at my house and became fast buddies from the word get go. He did not know a soul outside his family so it was a hit for both My folks had been lovers of the great outdoors and spent much time on the lake and rivers as well as camping in the woods. My new buddy had never been fishing or camping but was a willing learner. It scares me to think of some of the thing

that we did as youngsters. Since there was very little crime in the small town that we lived in there was no fear of adults letting youngsters have much more liberties than would be possible in today's world. From the age of seven me and my buddy camped out on the river or the woods a mile or more away from town and not near a home of any kind. We swam the Washita river throughout the summers an did so without adult supervision. We rode horses we saw in fields and we had no idea who they belonged to. We later joined the Boy Scout organization and still later the National Guard. This was at the age of eighteen and about the time we split. My brothers were awarded college scholarships for football and they saw a better life for me if I was moved with them to the college town. My Buddy and me had lost some of our closeness when I started playing football in the seventh grade and he passed on it. He was in the National Guard when they were mobilized for WW II and I enlisted in the Coast Guard for four years during the war. We only saw each other a couple times after that and sadly he was killed in combat during the invasion of Europe. He was a good buddy and I still think of him.

I have had other good friends since adulthood and most have been associated with outdoor activity. Hunting and fishing with a friend has been a way of life with me in every town that I coached in for over twenty years. Most of the time we lost contact because as a coach I moved often. I have had three very close friends here in Lufkin during the thirty eight years I have lived here. One has died, one has moved to another town and one quit fishing.

Buckle Up, Drive With Care, Put On A Life Jacket And I'll See You On The Lake.