Day 3 - Sunday, Church and Catfishin'

I went to church this morning at Riverside Baptist Church, in Money Mississippi. The little old church was small and really pretty. It had 2 rows of pews and stained glass on every window. It had about 30' ceilings with exposed beams. There were about 20 people in church, but it was pointed out that a couple of families were away for the Memorial day weekend. Pastor Butch preached a great sermon. He has a really smooth style, very articulate and a relevant message. He mentioned that his sermons are so great that people come all the way from California to hear them. Most everyone already knew I was from California, and they got a good laugh out of it. They took the time to pray for folks in the congregation, servicemen overseas, people affected by the floods, and many others by name. We sang several hymns and it was an enjoyable service. Most everyone came to talk to me after the service.

For lunch I had Crawfish pie. It was about 6 folded pies stuffed with crawfish and vegetables in a dark red gravy. As I like to say - It sho' am good!

I met a wonderful family of folks in the evening that were running a bunch of trot lines in the Tallahatchie river. I went along in their little boat to check the lines. We left just before dark and the river was beautiful. It got a more interesting after it got dark and we were trying to dodge trees in the river when it was almost pitch black. They talked a lot about stories like, "Remember when that big water moccasin fell in the boat?" and "Dont tell Rawge why I only got 9 fingers". We caught a lot of big catfish, some of them as big as 30 pounds. I got a few nice pictures, but there were 4 of us in a small boat, so I was mostly dodging tree limbs and trying to stay dry from all the fish splashing. Tyler, the guy in the front that was checking the hooks and putting fresh bait was chewing Copenhagen. While standing on the front of the moving boat, he spit on the little baitfish that were dangling from the hook. His accuracy made me jealous.

Tallahatchie River at dusk

After we finished running the lines, we went frog giggin'. You spot the bull frog's glowing eyes on the bank with a light. Then they ease the boat into the bank. You have a choice to try to hit it with the gig, but a surer catch is to gab it with your hands. The only problem is that snake eyes and frog eyes look identical. The guy in front would gig a frog and then fling it in the back, by me. Of course you can imagine that every time it came along with " On no! Its a snake! Its a snake!!" just before it landed by my feet in the dark.

Anyway, we caught a mess of fish and had a great time. And I saw my first Fireflys!
Thanks Tyler, Adam and Cody!