A Fishing Story

I imagine many of you have heard the joke of the game warden and the man fishing with dynamite. If not, here it is as told by Jerry Clower:

In our family is a tale told about my great-grandfather (Thomas Bryan Jones) and his brother-in-law (Abraham Warren Toler). Nearly every time Dad would take me and my brother fishing, he would tell us the story. I even heard Granddaddy Fred Jones tell it at least once before he died.

It seems Granddaddy Tom and Uncle Abe were in a boat fishing with dynamite near Bonnerton, where Granddaddy Tom was living at the time (in the 1920s or 1930s). They would throw a stick of dynamite into the creek, wait for the explosion, then paddle around and scoop up the fish that had floated to the top of the creek.

One time, though, Uncle Abe lit the stick and went to throw the dynamite but hit the edge of the boat in his toss. The dynamite just plopped into the water beside the boat.

Uncle Abe yelled, “Paddle like hell, Tom, she’s going to blow!” Granddaddy Tom started paddling for all he was worth.

When the dynamite exploded, the boat stood almost straight up from the blast. Luckily, neither fisherman was injured, and the family has had a story to tell for nearly 100 years.