We ate quite a
lot of fish when I was growing up. Dad always ran a couple of trotlines in the
spring and summer, and both Paul David and I liked to fish. Mostly we caught
catfish on cane poles with hooks baited either with grasshoppers and worms, or
with some of the chicken hearts, livers and gizzards Mom brought home from the processing
plant. We also caught bass and bream, though, usually on old Zebco reels with
spinners on the line. We loved eating them all.
Though I liked the taste of fish, I didn’t
like bones and sometimes worried about choking on one. I’d heard that if you
ever got a bone caught in your throat you should drink vinegar, which would
dissolve it.
One night the
terrible thing I’d dreaded happened. I got a fish bone caught in my throat and
panicked. I jumped up from the table and took off running into the kitchen
where mom kept a little carafe of vinegar on the counter. I tore the cap off and
drank the whole thing down in a couple of gulps.
The cure worked,
though whether the vinegar dissolved the bone or just washed it down I’ll never
know. Unfortunately, the treatment was about as bad as the bone. I think the
vinegar dissolved about half my esophagus too, and maybe a little bit of
stomach.
Come to think of
it, though, it wasn’t much worse than drinking straight shots of Jack Daniels.
But that’s a story from when I was quite a bit older.
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21 comments:
OMG! Drinking straight vinegar??? Wow!
Nice brief story!
Aloha
Lana, yep.
Cloudia, thankee!
damn. i never heard that before...but have taken shots of vinegar on a dare....and its beastly....
Drinking straight vinegar sounds horrible!
Not a damn thing wrong with those straight shots of Jack Black, though I do prefer mine over ice.
I've heard that an ounce of vinegar day is mighty good for you, but I'll pass on it and drink a little red wine before it turns to vinegar. .
For me it was mostly bass, crappie, blue gill, brim and catfish. My grandfather taught me to fish, and we went fishing all the time until he passed away in the late '80s. He used to tick me off because I would use the same rod and reel as him, the same bait, cast the exact same way he would in the exact same spot, and get nothing, not even a nibble. But he would pull out 50 little ones, or a handful of larger bass. Always made him chuckle when that happened.
Brian, it was. Though I don't remember it as well as you might think.
Alex, yep.
Richard, Aye, me too.
Oscar, probably a good choice.
Ty, I had a nephew who always caught more fish than me just like that. Some folks just have the touch.
I once gulped down white vinegar from a nameless bottle thinking it was water. In my childhood I used to catch small crabs with only bait and no hook and throw them back into the sea.
I was asked once:
"how do you debone a fish?"
"don't bone it in the first place."
Yikes! That is one tough cure.
I know they say vinegar fixes everything but this seems a bit farfetched. The whiskey would have been more fun at least.
Prashant, we sometimes caught crawfish like that, though usually we did put a bit of bait just tied on a line. They'd cling to it with their claws as you pulled 'em out.
Mark, sage advice, I should say. I think I will take it.
Bernard, Cold blooded 2 arrived on my kindle this morning.
Patti, quite likely had I drank that much water it would have washed it down. I doubt it would dissolve it that fast for sure.
This post got me bug-eyed. Yikes. Glad you hadn't been told to drink bleach or swallow WD-40.
I've heard pickle juice will make you pass a drug test (pot lingers a notoriously long time). That's largely vinegar and brine. I've heard you need to drink half a jar too. Not sure if it works or not, but in a way I'd rather face needlessly harsh consequences than drink pickle juice.
Ooh, right on, Charles ~!
Vinegar seems to have lots of "purposes" such as the "fish bone cure." And the verdict may still be out on *all* of them, come to think about it.
This is a perfect microcosm of personal-universal detail. I dig.
wishbones are another story! ;)
Ron, yes, I hadn't thought of that. I will now.
eric1313, egads. Pickle juice is quite awful. I have tasted it.
Erik, I imagine it might work on small bones over a long time. But not quickly.
Laughingwolf, dude. Good to see you!
Good God, that's scary. Both the bone, and the vinegar.
Riot kitty, I was often a panicky little child.
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