There was a time when my family was extremely happy. There was my mother and father, and my sister, and my twin brother. We’re identical twins.
Disaster arrived when my parents decided to have a boy who was a ward of the state to stay with us over the summer. His name was Rene Leschallier de Lisle and he had a carrot up his bum. He was the same age as me and my brother and we were meant to look after him and be nice to him and let him join in with everything we did. So we were prepared to do that and all he did was not join in anything and complain about it. I can see why his own parents rejected him and he’d been passed on from one foster home to another.
It was proving to be the worst summer break ever in my whole life. Then one day we asked him – me and my brother – if he wanted to come trout fishing in the river and he said yes. Thank goodness he wanted to do something although we weren’t looking forward to having his company much while we went fishing.
When we got there he did an amazing thing: he tickled a trout. I always thought that trout tickling was a fiction but he showed us that it was true. Then he showed us how to do it. It was a bit like trying to hold a bar of soap in the bath. It is illegal of course but we went home with more trout than we were allowed to and we hadn’t even used the fishing line.
After that we couldn’t shut Rene Leschallier de Lisle up. He was interested in everything and the rest of the summer was a lot of fun.
Then as the summer ended our parents asked him if he wanted to stay with us permanently and he said yes. And my brother and I were very pleased.
Just … wow!
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Thank you Yvonne!
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Tender piece of the heart.
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Thank you!
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My lovely, but slightly you know-what Canadian niece said “Hopefully tomorrow will be normal.” She is hooked on murder and mayhem, thanks to you.
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Oh dear – the nice has gone out of niece and we are left with only an E.
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What does it mean to tickle a trout? That doesn’t translate to Missourian.
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You rub the trout on its belly and they freeze and you flip them out of the water.
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Apparently, there are many killings in the story. Sadly, it was all very fishy.
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Yes – people in the comments seem to have missed the murders.
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I expect that there is a knack to trout tickling, like cow tipping.
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It’s a question of getting close enough to the trout in the first place – apparently.
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Is cow tipping an actual thing?
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I just say “Thanks for the milk”. I’ve never left a tip.
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Good one, BA.
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It depends on who you talk to.
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What a warm and life-affirming story, Bruce!
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Thank you John – and delighted you seem to be the only one who is not disappointed in the story’s lack of murder and mayhem!
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Well, at least the trout got murdered!
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I keep looking for the catch.
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I think I also found a portal into the future. Are you going to post “Dare to Ask,” then “A Cunning Murderer,” then “Outside the Bakery…”?
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It depends on what portal you found – there are several!
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Seriously. It’s scheduled ahead through January….
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January 6th I think
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Aha!
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If you get ahead it removes the stress and one is freer to be creative!
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Ha! Clever!
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I have never heard of trout tickling! But it sounds like the family never lacked for fish. Who knew tickling trout would turn the boy’s life around? I liked this story!
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Thanks Noelle. And I’m delighted to have told a scientist something they didn’t know!
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I felt as though I was reading something that had really happened. I suspect the problem would be to find the trout to tickle!
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It’s partly from a tale my cousin Jane told me… When she was a little girl another little girl came for the summer and Jane took her to the river. Jane was wearing – she said – a brown skirt and she caught a trout in her skirt. She was showing off to the little girl. She took the fish home and her parents thought she was showing off and made her take the fish back to the river because “she didn’t have a license”! Jane told me (she’s now in her 70s) that in retrospect her parents were secretly rather impressed!
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After reading this yesterday I watched youtube videos on trout tickling and also noodling for Catfish….my goodness I was lost in that for two hours! It’s all your fault!
Nice story though.
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A lot of readers had never heard of trout tickling, and I had not heard of catfish noodling until yesterday when I googled tickling!
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So, you fact check your own stories!
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No – I was looking after it was posted to see what people would get if they googled it and it came up with noodling. I never research anything – I’m post-modern.
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I’m proud to know a post-anything!
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