Tony’s At 5 AM

I have many memories from my childhood that all fit me like snug warm clothes in winter. One in particular is recalled often as it set a rhythm my whole life has followed.

In the early 1950’s, I was a very young fisherman who had a particularly proud father. He was a hard-working salesman and a fly fisherman. On Friday nights from May to October we would play out a ritual together that was repeated many, many times. I would obediently go to bed early at about 6 PM and would be awaken at 11:30 PM to begin a magic carpet ride to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Owens River that laid at their feet.

The road was long: Precisely it was 306 miles and six hours flat from our small home in San Fernando, California to our fishing destination, the Long Ears Ranch on the Owens River. The…