Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
Judging by the traffic in West Ocean City today summer is official upon us, or the Kelly Drawbridge (Rt. 50 Bridge) was stuck open and people still aren’t used to the new four-way stop on Golf Course Road. I am going to stick with my original thought though. Summer is absolutely here. I mean this week is the 4th of July and Ocean City is definitely open for business (C’mon movie fans… What am I referring to here? The first person to tell me what great movie that last sentence was referencing will get a free “Last Call” t-shirt.)
The 4th of July also marks one of my favorite fishing tournaments of the season, the Ocean City Marlin Club Canyon Kick Off. It isn’t the biggest tournament on the calendar, although it is respectable. There is usually a fair amount of money spread around to the winners. Over the years, I have been pretty lucky in the Kick Off. As a matter of fact, back in the early 90s it was the first tournament I ever took first place in. Through the years I have been treated very well during the 4th of July holiday weekend. Great big bunches of awesome memories.
In the days before everyone had smart phones and satellite weather available all over the internet, we used to get our sea surface temperature charts sent to us via fax machine. Sometimes the transmissions would come in the middle of the night, other times in the middle of the day. There was no guarantee when they would arrive. Since Dad lived on the boat, the best way to make sure we didn’t miss a “shot” while we were away from the dock was to keep a fax machine plugged into a land line in our dock box. This also served as the “Last Call” answering service while we were out fishing. When we got back to the dock on one 4th of July, Dad noticed that we had more than our usual share of messages blinking on the answering machine. For you youngsters, an answering machine was a sort of prehistoric voicemail recording device. The messages were recorded on to a mini cassette tape. A cassette tape was what came after 8 tracks and before CDs…. wait, this could go on forever. Just think of it as voicemail for old folks.
So anyway, there were a bunch of messages and missed calls. It seemed like everyone in our little home town of National Park, NJ had called us while we were out fishing. Trying to figure out what could have been so urgent at home, Mom and Dad commenced to returning calls. As it turns out, there was some excitement in National Park that morning. My grandmother and grandfather used to have a daily routine of going to the local liquor store for a six pack (or maybe two) and then on to the local newsstand for the paper and lottery tickets. National Park was, and still is, a pretty small town. The liquor store is on the second biggest road and the newsstand is on the biggest. When my grandfather pulled away from Parke Towne Liquors and stopped at the red light on the corner, one of National Park’s Finest walked up to the window and knocked on the glass. My grandfather rolled the window down and looked at the officer. The policeman said, “Mr. Komczyk, wait for the parade to pass and you can head down to Kelly’s” (that was the newsstand, and like I said, National Park is a small town. Everyone knew each other and the cop could overlook the fact that an old man was driving with a beer in his lap to go get the newspaper). My grandfather was very hard of hearing so he just smiled and rolled up the window. He turned and looked at my grandmother and said, ”Woman, what did he say?” My Grandmother replied, “The light is green. Go.” And just like that my grandfather made a left hand turn and drove right through the National Park 4th of July Parade! The good news is that no one was injured as he made his way to Kelly’s Newsstand. Even better was that no one was hit on the return trip either.
Another time when I got in from fishing on Saturday of the Canyon Kick Off I made a new friend. My co-mate Dave and I were washing the boat when these two young ladies came up to talk to us. They were obviously inebriated and apparently had gone to high school with Dave. In no time at all Dave and I convinced them to help us shammy the boat. Dave had the blonde wiping down the fighting chair. Meanwhile, the brunette was up on the fly bridge and just having a grand old time drying things off. So much so that she didn’t notice the open floor over the fly bridge ladder. The saying is that the Good Lord looks after babies, drunkards and fools. It’s a good thing she was drunk. Somehow she fell from the bridge to the cockpit floor and landed on her butt, but didn’t hurt herself at all. Or spill her drink! Over 20 years later, I refer to her as the sister I never wanted and my sidekick Mr. Evans calls her his wife. Another special 4th of July weekend memory.
The Canyon Kick Off Tournament will be special for me again this year too. I am sure of it. I think it is the 37th Anniversary of the tournament. But there is another special anniversary that falls during the tournament weekend. Fifty years ago a husky young lad, freshly home from serving his country in Vietnam, was out at a bar with his buddy. They spied two young ladies that didn’t seem to be having a good time with their dates so they figured they better come to the rescue. That husky young lad latched on to the shorter of the two gals and made plans for a date on the 4th of July. Even though he was late picking her up (something about lost keys while being out on a boat) the date went off without a hitch. The lovebirds even saw a red, white and blue butterfly to commemorate the event. The rest, as they say, is history. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I love you both! And Happy Birthday America!!! Good luck to everybody fishing the Canyon Kick Off! Get out there and make some 4th of July memories.
Capt Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” which is docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center, owner of Pettolina Marine Surveying, Inc. and multi-term President of the Ocean City Marlin Club. If you would like to book a charter on the “Last Call”, please call 443-783-3699 or 410-251-0575.
