Loved your story. I can relate to gathering oysters. I moved to the Lynnhaven River area in Virginia when I was 15. I quickly hooked up with a local fisher who did blue crabs, oysters and gillnetting fish. I also worked at a small boat yard repairing and painting fishing boats and yachts.

We had 15, 100 yard humps of oysters right in the Lynnhaven River which were exposed a low tide. Using careful se******n as apposed to what the tongers had to do, we didn't deplete our stock.

In the winter to make extra money I'd go for sole shoe oysters. These rascals shells are 12 to 13" long. I would wear chest waders and have to bend over and feel in the mud for them. They were 100's of years old and found in Crab Creek behind the Thurogood House In the Lynnhaven area of Va. Beach, Va.

In the fall we'd fish gill nets for trout, croker and spots. On occasion we'd get our butts kicked trying to get a dolphin out of the net. Damn but those critters are nothing but muscle and they would leave you not wanting to move the next morning.

Tom, I can feel you're enjoyment, wish I could do that again. Too old now, any of it would k**l me now as it's really hard work for an old guy but it's great for the younger folks, guy or gal. It's a great way of life in my opinion. Mike

Trump's misdeeds do not mean nothing. But the bottom line is his performance as president.

You are correct that minimum wage part time jobs (especially when "created" by the government through tax payer's money), do not build the middle class. Manufacturing and mining jobs are NOT minimum wage nor part time and are private industry so not funded by taxpayers. Thank you Trump!

And aren't you glad we are no longer catering to Russia and China? Thank you Trump!

The EPA under Trump has done more for our environment with less money than Obama did. Getting rid of unnecessary personnel, streamlining the agency, and returning to using the funds for doing the job instead of enriching the pockets of swamp creatures has resulted in a far more effective agency. Thank you Trump!

Yes he has put miners back to work!!!! Thank you Trump!


Yes he has renegotiated treaties to give the US a fair deal instead of benefiting other nations at American's expense. Thank you Trump!

You are so right about him building the wall where it does the most good and STOPPING the execrable Obama practice of taking property away from Americans to build a wall where it is impractical and ineffective. Thank you Trump!

Yes he has encouraged wealthy corporations to manufacture WITHIN the borders of the US through lower taxes, less punitive and unnecessary regulations, and paying tariffs on goods manufactured elsewhere to sell within the US. This discourages outsourcing. It also benefits small business, encourages start ups, and helps employees by providing more jobs than job seekers so employers have had to start competing for employees. This is great for the working class and has done more to help minorities than all the social programs which have kept them at substandard income! Thank you Trump!

You have made good points in sowing how much better Trump policies are then Obama's have been! Thanks Coos Bay!

Tom, we had diplomacy on our side when Obama gave other countries wh**ever they wanted. Now other nations do not trust us because the gravy train is ending. Pollution is still declining. Getting rid of useless regulations promulgated by even more useless bureaucrats is not a bugler sounding the charge to destroy the Earth. Which treaty rights are you referring to, by the way?
Regarding your support of Biden, I suggest you look down his back trail. He is guilty of just about everything you are laying on Trump.

Tom, your candidate Biden got five student deferments to avoid the draft and supposedly had asthma, from which he apparently no longer suffers. Don't you find it odd that the same asthma that got him a medical deferment was not severe enough to keep him from playing football at both his high school and the University of Delaware?

BTW; I enlisted also, when I was old enough to know better.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/joe-biden-twenty-things-you-probably-didnt-know/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/01/bidens-draft-deferments-equal-cheneys-during-vietn/