I have told this story quite often throughout my career, much to my father’s chagrin.

Growing up, I remember regularly heading to the riverbank on our property or the pond across the road and fishing for hours.

It really didn’t matter what I caught. It could have been a catch worthy of mounting or a catch worthy of tossing back; to me, every bite and catch was a momentous occasion.

I would often bring the fish back to my mother, who would graciously celebrate my successes, place it in the freezer and say, “we will cook them up later.”

After a lot of catches and strangely no dishes, I found that my catches became fewer and fewer. I would get plenty of bites, but had a problem reeling them in.

It was years later my dad admitted that one day, after I brought back some random fish that he took wire cutters to my hooks, removing the barbs. The bites would happen, but hooking the fish was far more difficult.

To this day, although I do not do it nearly enough, I enjoy fishing. I have only had the chance to go out with my children a few times to some friend’s pond and cast a line.

Recently, I saw on Facebook where some cancelled baseball games, gave one father, many of you know, a chance to share the opening day of turkey season with his boys.

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealy shared with me the following story and the photos of their opening day accomplishment:

“Grayson and Mayson Shealy have played baseball since they were 3-years-old and began travel ball at six. Inevitably our Saturday mornings during turkey season always seemed to be occupied with a tournament. Due to so much rain our previously scheduled baseball outing in Hattiesburg was cancelled.  So I jumped on the opportunity to take the boys on our first ‘opening day ever.

“During the early morning hours everything began to fall in place.  We set up in just the right spot, with five gobblers that liked what my call was saying.  They marched in at 30 yards and posed for an instant. Then on the count of three, both boys landed their first turkeys and I had my best hunt ever.”

During the year, there are a lot of great opportunities for parents and their children to take to the outdoors. Now that youth baseball and softball has started, there are plenty of “ballpark parents” getting the gear ready for the parks.

Working in this business, we sometimes forget to celebrate the everyday stories, the everyday success stories. This is one that I am glad we had to share, and invite others to send us their stories.

There is nothing more I enjoy seeing in the newspaper is a child with their first deer, their first gobbler or the fish they snagged with grandpa over the weekend. I love having people come by the newspaper and showing off their big tomatoes or the squash that would feed an entire family.

As I said in my column after I first moved to Vicksburg, The Post is your newspaper and nothing makes us at The Post happier than when the community gets involved and participates.

Do I hold a grudge against my dad for cutting the barbs off my hooks? No, not really.

I still enjoy fishing today and look forward to sharing that love with my children. You never know, they might have a catch one day worthy of printing in the newspaper.

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Tim Reeves is publisher of The Vicksburg Post and can be reached by email at tim.reeves@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545 ext. 122.