Day Catching Minnows

1940's

We all had fish tanks indoors, but not gold fish or tropical fish, but Minnow's, something we treasured, our own pet, there was no such thing as fish pet food, so we used what we thought they would like for food, their life span was short, so a day up the Dam behind Donnie's on the Kilmacolm Rd was planned, I don't remember what we called this Dam, I asked on the Gibby site, but I'm afraid all sorts of names came up, but not the one I wanted, someone will tell me, and I can alter this

We needed 3/4 Jam-jars each, but couldn't ask mother, 1st, she couldn't afford to buy jam, 2nd. she needed every jar for herself to make jam, mother would buy 2 oz of butter which she guarded with her life, we dare not touch, we had Echo margarine, god awful stuff, any way back to our fishing, to get our jars we had to rake every midden we could, when we had our jars, the most important thing was that every jar we took had to have a label on it, well stuck, will explain later

Mother would make up a load of sandwiches, not Ham, not Beef, not cheese but home made jam or margarine

When we got to the Dam, we hopped over the fence and headed for the far side, so we could spot the Care-takers van drawing up at the gate on the Kilmacolm Rd, gave us a chance to scarper, we were chased lots of times but never caught

There was an art in catching Minnows, most important, the Jar had to have a label on it, about 6 feet of strong string tied around the neck of the jar, put some bread in it fill it up with water, and throw it in about 3/4 feet, and most important, the label most important was at the bottom, so the back of the label being white, showed the minnows crossing the neck of the jar, when one was inside, a quick yank on your string, captured the minnow, this was transferred into a larger jar ready to transport home, these trips lasted all day, we loved it