A Positive Reflection....

                Hello all and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. If you are tuning into this blog looking for my typical hodge-podge of goofy humor, or for my incredible fishing genius, then I’m afraid I need to tell you to stop reading now. I remember when I was in grade school and I heard the By, By, Miss America Pie song and I had a music teacher that began to cry when they sang “the day the music died”. She explained to us that it was a song about the death of Buddy Holly and that she would never listen to music in the same way. I guess I had never really understood how anything could be so powerful and today it all made sense.

                I have had so much fun writing these blogs over the years and hearing people’s reactions but I think this edition will be written just for me. My wife has often told me how much my humor comes from my father and I just smile and thank her because even if others don’t laugh, in my own mind, I am hilarious. Now my father was far from perfect, he came from a different generation, but to me he was awesome. From September until January I always knew that our conversations would be about how awful the Huskers were, about our up and down golf games, the weather, and then he would always finish by asking how Cat was getting along and if I was keeping her in line. Soon after the bowl games, the conversations were all about the nasty cold weather, that he tried to play golf but the greens were frozen, and then he would finish the conversation by asking about Cat, and if I was keeping her in line. Late spring and summer the conversations were about how poor he thought the Huskers would be next year, and then he would tell me about the one week that he broke 80 three times and that now his game was back in the crapper and then he would finish off by asking how Cat was and if I was keeping her in line. My dad very rarely told real jokes but he was king of the one liners. When we would go back to Omaha we spent a lot of time playing pool or golf and my dad’s favorite saying was that there was no shame in being beaten by the best, with a little O’Grady smirk. Several years back, I took him down to the tail water and somehow he managed to land a 21 inch brown. He was so excited but as things sunk in and his picture made it on to the shops wall of fame, he had to ask Cat every time he saw her if she had caught one as big as his yet. Now that was my dad’s usual behavior but I will say this, when I went through one of the most difficult times of my life, my dad began calling and checking on me all the time, and in his typical O’Grady humor he asked if he could send someone to get the problem in line.

                I am writing about my father because he left this world on Thursday, April 15^th and I hope that I can somehow keep the O’Grady, stupid humor tradition going. I know the song talked about the day the music died, but right now I feel like a part of the humor has left. On Friday I had Joe, a repeat client on the water and after he landed a fish, and while still fighting while I was trying to remove the hook, Joe remarked that the fish didn’t like being caught. Without hesitation, I told him that the fish should have no shame in being beaten by the best, I then had to walk away to wipe the tears. It was a start and I hope I can somehow be a positive reflection of my dad. I am happy to say that I have absolutely no regrets now that he is gone, we talked at least once a week and we had the bonus talks after every new Husker recruit, and every time Cat and I left Omaha, our last stop would be with Dad and Dee to tell them how much we love them.

                Tomorrow is Easter and a great time to spend with the people you love. Because of Easter, I am sure that my father will spend an eternity in heaven thinking of new one liners for when we meet again. I will be out of town this week but back next weekend and hopefully we can finish off spring with some great fishing. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Hugh Arther O’Grady and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading….