The hot weather we have been experiencing this past week almost makes me wonder if the “Dog Days” of August are here a tad early.

When I look back on those hot summer days it seems like only yesterday that I was a kid growing up on the north edge of town. Spring always meant running water in the ditches and following the flow to the “crick” to look for signs of fish or any amphibians that would inhabit the slough that ran from Bancroft Bay to Goose Lake. I can remember how excited us kids would get when we first spotted tadpoles swimming in the water under the bridge.

At first they looked like baby bullheads, which would get our adrenaline flowing because bullheads were gamefish to us country kids. Once we discovered that they were tadpoles we’d visit the “crick” almost every day just to watch their progression from tadpole to frog. I always marveled at this transition because I knew it was one of nature’s wonders and to witness it was always something special.

We kids spent almost all of our waking summer moments outdoors playing games, exploring the “crick” or some days were spent hiking back to the far ends of the slough. There were days when for lack of anything better to do we’d explore the culverts that ran along side of Bridge Avenue and on Mondays we’d pay a visit to the “slaughter house” to see which critters were about to meet their demise.

It seems that we were never inside from the time we ate breakfast until our moms beckoned us into the house at dark. If one of us opted to stay in the house during the day we figured he was either sick or had been really bad and was being punished.

Our entertainment was cheap, a football, baseball and a bat and if you were lucky a glove. I never owned a glove of my own but did inherit one from my cousin Tom when he left for the service. We played a lot of football and baseball in the backyard and sometimes were pretty creative in our entertainment.

A lot of us had built carts which we liked to call “stock cars” and would race them down any hill that we could find. The carts were made up of wheels, usually from an old Radio Flyer wagon and planks. I can remember spending hours fine tuning my “machine” so that it would roll down the hill in a flash. My car was not really sophisticated and steering was always a challenge. I steered it with my feet — pretty basic: turn left push with right foot, etc. It was a good way to break an ankle if you were going fast and hit something.

The culmination of our work on one summer Saturday morning was to haul our carts to this big hill behind the airport and have big time races. There were about eight of us that had carts and this was like the Indy 500 to us kids. One kid, Lanny Waller had a state-of-the-art soapbox type of car and although we’d never admit it, I know the rest of us were a little jealous.

Finally the race began and “wow” was that hill fast but the downside to it was at the bottom. “Cow humps” one time down and half the cars were pretty much wrecked. If you know what a cow hump is then you know that walking through an area with them is not easy. Try running into them on a flying piece of wood and wheels — not good, when my front end hit the first hump the steering mechanism (2×4 with a bolt in the middle) pushed back and crunched my ankle.

Luckily there were no broken bones and after limping up the hill pulling the cart (I had no pit crew) I was willing to try again. As the day ended half of the cars were pretty much trashed but luckily no one got more than some scrapes and bruises and maybe a sprained ankle. It seemed that pulling a broken down “stock car” back home took a lot longer than it did to get there. We decided to schedule the next event for a future date. I wonder when that will be?

We kids filled our summer days with exploring the outdoors, playing baseball, football or other games that our creative little minds could come up with. Now there was one game that we played (without Mom’s permission) was called “stretch”. In this game, which must have been thought up by a real genius, two participants were needed. They would face each other and each had a jack knife. The idea was for the player to throw the knife and make it stick in the ground and the player had to stretch his closest foot out to touch the knife. The most sticks while still standing won! What? I guess a chance to get his foot stabbed again. I managed to split the skin between a couple of my toes with a butter knife (jack knives were confiscated by moms). Did I mention that the game was usually played barefoot? I do believe the cut would have been cleaner and less painful with a sharp knife. I don’t know why but if we had nothing else to occupy our inventive little minds we always had stretch.

It’s fun to revisit those days when kids played outside and made their own entertainment; like playing baseball and football in someone’s back yard or Annie-I-Over and when evening came there was tag, hide and seek or kick the can. If I close my eyes I think I can still hear the laughter when playing a game or the bartering that would go on when someone decided to make up new rules or claimed to be “safe” even though they weren’t.

Fishing reports from around the area:

FAIRMONT — Crappies remain active in six to 10 feet on lakes George, Hall, Budd, Sissiton, and Amber. Work six to eight feet with Rapalas on Fox and Hall lakes for walleyes. Trolling Rapalas near the campground on Lake Imogene also remains a safe bet for walleyes.

FARIBAULT — Rapalas are producing walleyes during lowlight periods near the bridge and shorelines on Cannon Lake. Look to Lakes Mazaska and Shields for sunfish in shallow water and the weedlines of Shields for pike. Muskie anglers are finding active fish on French Lake while bass are hitting in the weeds of Lakes Mazaska, Hunts, Kelly Dudley, and Cedar.

MANKATO — Walleyes have been pulled out of the weeds on Lake Washington and along the shorelines of Lake Hanska during the evening hours. Crappies have started showing up in the shallows of Madison Lake and off Second Point on Washington. There’s also a good sunfish bite on Washington in less than six feet. On Little Jefferson Lake, spoons or minnows are producing numbers of pike.

WATERVILLE — Sunfish are shallow on most lakes with Tetonka, West Jefferson, and Clear producing the most numbers. Northern pike and bass continue to hit minnows and artificial baits on the weedlines of Lake Sakatah. Walleye action is slow with just a few fish coming off Tetonka late in the day over 15 to 20 feet.

Statewide fishing reports:

BRAINERD/NISSWA AREA — We have been finding walleyes from right on the edge of the weeds all the way to 20 feet of water. Shiners have been working well. Look to redtails as the water starts to warm up. Look at Gull, North Long or Pelican for the most consistent bite. The crappie bite is still going strong. There are still in the shallows looking for an easy meal. Minnows and puddle jumpers seem to work the best.

Until next time enjoy the great Minnesota outdoors and let’s go fish’n.

Remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers throughout the year.