The Story Board: A Fish Story and Monterey Mystery
From the Red Cottage by Bob Cutick, May 2022
It was years after we had first rented and later bought the little red cottage on Lake Garfield, two lots east of Kinne’s Grove, that I noticed barely visible pencil markings on the wood paneling in the living room. I had to look very closely, as I suspect you’ll need to as well, to see an account of a fishing holiday two couples had shared there.
Remarkable for the lovely hand the writer’s script displays, it recounts a visit from September 20 -27, 1904, by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Baer and Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Singleton, tallying the number.
Sept 20: 51 fish all told
41 rock bass
7 pickerel
1 “ 2 ½ lbs
1 “ 1 ¾ lbs
1 “ 1 ½ lbs
Sept 21: 7 fish all told
2 pickerel
5 rock bass
Wind blowing a gale all day
Sept 22: Still blowing a gale
3 small pickerel
Sept 23: 31 rock bass
2 shads
Sept 24: 46 fish all told
41 pickerel 2 lb
1 black bass
44 shads
Sept 26: 56 fish all told
51 rock bass
1 black bass
4 shads
Sept 27: We leave the camp —
because we cannot — take it with us
By George
The mysteries:
Why keep tally on the wall?
Were there other couples whose record keeping didn’t survive?
Would they return year after year, reliving the last visit?
And…who fishes in a gale?
The bigger mystery: If the red cottage was built later than 1904, then where did the panel come from and how did it find it’s way there?