Sister Melody was born by c-section on Monday, October 5, 1978. Because of the surgery Mother and Daughter were kept in the hospital for a few days (HMOs hadn't taken effect yet) and then confined at home for another week or so.. On Wednesday, October 14 was normally a fishing day, but Dad was "stuck" with the 2 boys for the week.  As fate would have it that Wednesday turned out to be the very religious holiday of Yom Kippur (i.e. the day of atonement). On such holidays Jewish kids stay home from school in observance of the importance of the holiday (some even go to temple). With Dad wanting to go fishing and having the boys home from school the dilemma was easily solved by Dad looking after the boys while he went fishing. And so the 3 of us went for a leisurely day of trolling out on the "9 mile bank". In late morning we passed Capt. "ONE-A-DAY" Bruce Kessler's "ZOPILOTE" heading back from their half day of effort.

   
     Shortly thereafter a funny thing happened. We got "bit" and in the course of the "Fire Drill" Kenneth, age 12, was asked to grab that rod and start cranking.  Having been well taught (good genes) he handled the fish well and it appeared that a gaff would be necessary soon. Daniel (age 10 1/2) was a little on the light side and we didn't have cock-pit controls at the time.

    Therefore, I called Bruce who promptly turned around, found us and proceeded to transfer a gaffer (Gary C. Graham) to our cock-pit. Shortly thereafter the fish was gaffed and on the step. With smiles all around we headed back to the Marlin Club for the ceremonies of weighing and photos.

    The dilemma for Kenneth was that he could not tell anyone about the trip until the following week when he indicated that the deed had taken place on Saturday. But now - we all know better. At least it gave him something to atone for on the next year's Yom Kippur (i.e. the day atonement).