Saturday, May 30, 2009

Do you know Frank? (the answer is no)


You don't know Frank. If you think that you that you know Frank than your probably wrong because I don't think you do. Unlike you, I do know Frank. Frank is 82 years old (as he pointed out he is the opposite age of me 28). I know Frank from estate auctions. I've been going to auctions for 10 years and he has been going for, well, a lot longer than that. Frank and I talk a lot at auctions. 99% of the stuff sold is of no interest to either of us. Here is the story that he told me today.

"After the war I stayed in Japan for a while rebuilding stuff. I was in charge of 50 men. Every morning I would got to the Japaneses prison camp and pick 50 guys. They would all come out and stand in perfect lines and I would pick the ones I wanted. We had guards but we didn't even really need them. These were trustworthy guys. Some of them were just kids. You know the Japanese had kids fighting for them? They always wanted me to pick them for my group. You know why? Because they knew that I went fishin. Yep, every night I would steal a duck. You know what a duck is? It's one of those vehicles that can go on land or water. I don't know how they didn't hear me stealing that thing every night. It was huge, and loud. They had to have known. Anyhow, I would always take a few of the prisoners with me. We would take that thing out on the lake and throw in a stick of dynamite. Then, the guys would all jump out and get the fish. The dynamite usually killed the fish and they would float to the top. If their bladder bursts they start to sink so you have to be quick. We started off just using one stick but after a while we got up to using a whole case every night. We got a lot of fish that way. Those guys would be throwing fish up in the boat left and right. It was good fish."

7 comments:

Mr. Thoms said...

I know Frank

Not Too Old said...

You meet and know some of the most interesting people!

I know a man named Bill, he was a fighter pilot, first with the Army Air Corps and then one of the first with the Air Force. He also worked at NORAD when the "hole in the hill" was still being built.

I think it's awesome to hear such amazing stories. thanks for sharing!

Francy said...

If Frank had a blog, he'd probably write a post titled "Do you know Dan?"

melanie said...

You remind me of your dad.

Mr. Thoms said...

Oh yeah that story is another example of government waste in spending.

DanThoms said...

But Mr. Thoms, they were using free labor so they had to spend the extra money somewhere. Plus they ate all the fish so it was probably cheaper than buying it.

Michael Joseph Sharp said...

I wish i'd had waited until after breakfast to read this blog post. Something about exploding bladders, dynamite, and sinking fish makes me feel a little strange.