Shadow Lake effect...

My childhood fishing primarily took place at Shadow Lake in Hawthorn Parkway near Solon, Ohio. It's a small lake that is easily walked completely around without feeling winded.Four to five times a week my Mom would drop my older brother and I off in the elevated parking lot and we'd grab our zebco's and run to the lake with wild anticipation. We spent our summers there, and explored wildlife hi jinx there. Some of which I am embarrassed to mention but, kids do things to see what would happen, in fact we played "what would happen" with a panfish occasionally and I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to panfish everywhere. Growing up my brother and I were different kids, I was into punk rock and skateboarding, and he was into sports and girls. Fishing at that lake was always a "bridge" for us and we crossed it with reckless wide eyed abandon.
Now, some 20+ years later my brother and I aren't nearly as close as we were, jobs, families, etc. etc have managed to keep us too busy. But, when we look back on our times at the lake with fondness and seem to remind ourselves of things as we continue to reminisce. Like " Remember when Dad let us borrow his favorite coat, you know the one from Cogans Bar that had Cogans in cursive across the satiny back?,Remember we were catching frogs with our zebcos and you flung one into the coat? The frog burrowed in his coat with the hook still in his mouth and went apeshit!! the point of the hook was sticking out and the frog started slicing and dicing his coat leaving a trail of slime that we couldn't get off and all that was left was the word "OG NS a gr at pla e to meet". Man he was really fired up when we tried to pretend like nothing happened..Or, the catfish you caught that was so big I started almost crying when I saw it, not out of joy but about the future nightmares?" There are many more and some might cause the ODNR to check the "grandfather clauses". But, it was our summers and it was a young, wild and free, bobber in your pocket, sweaty magical time. When your only worry was making sure you didn't run out of nightcrawlers before your Mom came a beeping.
My Dad and I decided to have lunch there not too long ago. I hadn't been back to Shadow Lake in about 15yrs and it was surprising to see that not much has changed. Same dock, same trail, same big tree. We had lunch and then I walked down to cast off the dock and see if the magic was still there. My dad is not much for fishing. He stepped onto the dock with me and quietly pulled something large out of an old cardboard box. The moment the hard drive left his hand and sailed into the middle of the lake, I knew we were on different sides of the fence. All his complete disregard for nature aside, I love him dearly, and sometimes you just have to appreciate the fence.
Note to my brother: Dad threw a hard drive from an IBM into the bottom of our lake..maybe we can try and get it out someday.