Our Cosmic Moment

My brother Wade, and I, had been wanting to go out for an overnight fishing trip for a few months and we were finally able to make it happen this weekend.
We decided to go out out late Saturday night to his favorite honey hole in Courtland, California. I won't say the name of the actual place--but from what I can tell from a cursory look ,had all the appearances of a great fishing hole, and I was sure it would live up to all the hype that it had been given by him.
We took Wade's son Marquel who is twelve ,and two teen aged sons--Don and Dominic-- of a female friend of Wade's. Our other brother's (Carlos) two teen aged sons, CJ and Andrew went on the trip also.
We loaded full, a car and s.u.v with fishermen and equipment and supplies and hit the trail.
I was glad that the weather was nice for the trip. Mid-October weather in California can be a crap shoot. That day it had been around 76 degrees and was a little chilly when we arrived at 1200am or so. Maybe our adrenalin was running high and we just hadn't notice the chilled air.
The first thing I noticed after getting our lines in the water and folding chairs and table set up was the night time skies. A couple of the boys could not remember seeing a night sky full of stars. I explained, that the further you got away from the lights of civilization the better you could see the stars shine their brightest.
Wade brought foodstuffs, all the normal fishing/camping survival foods for growing boys and for overgrowing middle aged men. On our menu was; chips,cheese-puffs,cookies,danishes,canned cheese,lunch meat,crackers,two containers of fruit punch,bottled water and all the above, incostcosized (a new word I created).
Our bait selection was voluminous as well I bought; two pounds of frozen sardines, chicken livers, two dozen pile worms, and two bags of anchovies. Wade added five pounds of frozen sardines also. My rational for all the bait was--that if Wade's honey hole was as good as he had claimed, then we would need the extra for all the fish we were sure to catch.
Marquel was the first victim to fall to the sandman around 1:00 or 2:00am. He had
layed out a blanket on the sandy beach--murmured something about waking him if he caught a fish--and he was off to dreamland.
The fishing was not as good this day as we had hoped but, I was still in awe of
the chilled clarity of star filled sky--and the utter quiet of the moment. I saw four shooting stars through the night, and when the others saw some also, I told them about the making a wish part which they seemed to enjoy. As I sat a ways away from our group, to drink it all in--about the majesty of nature and creation--I saw CJ and Andrew sitting next to each other, both with laptops flipped up--screens bright-- I hoped that they weren't sending messages to each other. That would be typical of todays ways if they were though. I chided them, asking,�Who brings flippin' laptops on a fishing trip?� My answer was,
right in front of my eyes. � I told them. �Hey what ever floats you guys boats.� I think now--while they could understand the tone and cadence of that statement being teens in the America of 2009, could they even know what it really meant? Maybe tone and cadence is enough. I certainly couldn't tell anyone when I first heard a statement like that, but when I did it must have resonated something within to have me saying it years later in my adult life. My brothers and I, all have good memories of our uncles and grandfather and on rare occasions even our father taking us fishing. I have tried to give that experience to my niece and nephews and grand daughter and stepsons as I feel it is important to share memories and experiences, even those of a more primal nature like sitting in solitude in the chilled October air in ones favorite honey hole--watching the youngsters enjoy their laptops and cell phones--at one with the universe. Our cosmic moment.