The Fishin Song

The Fishin’ Song, these are the words that lulled me to sleep each night as a child. My dad’s deep, gruff voice never sounded as stern as he half whispered, half sang the words, slowly and rhythmically. There was always something magical to the song, it could soothe the fussiest baby and send the stubbornest child into dreamland no matter who was the one singing the song. The origins of The Fishin’ Song goes back four generations to my great grandfather who sang it to my grandfather and to my father and live vicariously through spoken word and song. Never has it truly been written down or recorded and research has never been able to find a song quite like my great grandfather’s Fishin’ Song. Instead it is a piece of verbal history that will …show more content…
One of her final requests before she passed away was to see her great grandchildren again, requesting my brother Jason, my sister Melissa, and baby Katie. At the time my mother only had two children, my brother and sister, and no other child planned. Yet in 1996m five years after my grandmother’s passing, I was born. My name quickly became something that could easily be shortened to Katie, Katelyn. It was in this process of naming me and me baring the name of Katie that I keep the memory of my great grandmother alive vicariously. However, it is not only her memory that I keep alive today my first and middle name are both tied together in a story of how the dead and dying were truly the ones who named …show more content…
The student body held its breath when they heard that a new student from Russia would be joining our mix. Stereotypes and prejudice began to flood people's mind sending the school spiraling back into what almost resembled the Red Scare of the 20’s. The moment he entered our school through he taught me, and everyone he meet, just how wrong our Americanized viewed of his homeland was. Russia was not the easiest place to live for some but it was Alex’s home, a place that he loved and was ready to share stories with anyone who would listen. Alex and I both managed to teach each other about our homelands and in the end he taught me a valuable lesson. Everyone sees the world different, through the skewed and biased ways of our country and media but that is never the full story. You must find a new window to peek through, a new outlet which allows you to keep an open mind about nationalities and nations you may have not encountered