Better Catfish than no Fish at all

You know I was reading this article in the Brooklyn Paper the
other day about how this whole economic mess is effecting many
of the stores on 86th street between Fourth and Fifth Avenue in
Bay Ridge.

And not "schlock" shops like here in Kensington, no these were
some decent little stores that made that particular strip a little
bit more “upscale” than Church Avenue.

I was also reading about how many of the “cool” little coffee
shop places were also “deep sixing” out in Williamsburg.
Once again the byproduct of the economic times we’re
currently in.

Then suddenly my mind wandered, and I
thought about my family’s pond upstate.

Now it’s a small pond, a perfect circle about fifty feet in diameter.
It was dug out about the same time my grandfather Paco built the
house in 1956.

When I was a kid, my grandfather would always try to stock the
pond with brown trout, bass, perch, and many other fine fresh-water
fish from the Catskills. It was a labor of love, and it was always
a lot of work to make sure the fish all survived throughout the years.

But then in 1976 my grandfather Paco passed away, and my cousin
Pete and I weren’t exactly dragging pails full of fish to the pond.
No, we were hanging out in Brooklyn and doing what young guys
usually do in the city, while the pond was never ever stocked again.

So what happened to our pond in the past thirty years or so?
Well, we ended up with thousands of “Catfish”.

Mud sucking, algie eating, live through anything, Catfish!

You know, those black little slimy fish with those long whiskers,
and a barb on the back of their fin that can pierce your skin
like a needle through a sheet of paper.

Yes, Catfish.

So what does all this have to do with that strip on 86th street and
our beloved Church Avenue you ask?

Well, every time my kids want to go fishing and catch something,
I drag them down to our old pond. They throw the line in the water
and catch fish after fish after fish. They just have such a great time
and they don't care what they catch, as long as it's a fish.

Cool coffee shops and nice pretty little stores may just be
the "Brown Trout" and "Rock Bass" of 2008's Brooklyn.
Gasping for air in a muddy old pond called "recession".

While on Church Avenue
here in Kensington?

Well, all I can say is a Catfish
is better than no fish at all.

Ron Lopez


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