Questions from the back of the bus

[Lurker]

Why doesn't this site get more activity? It seems like all that is here are the same handful of posters responding to one another. You have a great concept for a club, but why no activity? Is membership growing or falling?

[Len Sawisch]

Lurker,

Check the ratio of views to posts. The reel talk site gets a lot more readers than posters.

Len

[SWIM JIG]

when qustion or thought is posted, most likley someone will answere! the answere is ment for all the raeders, and we trust and hope you readers will add , sugest, explain or other coments be made so a comparison can be made! Some of our members as well as NON MEMBERS have a tremendous amount of factual printed material they draw on and then list it for all our benfits: For example what is your colecting intrest? feel free to list it, See or have a reel you have not read or heard about list it, the odds are at least 50 or so members will be collecting the same type or company reel! Yes there are some of us that (joke around with our friends, however I dont know of any members that wont go to the end of their line on their reel to help YOU! By doing this 1, we sare a knowledge so that bad or modified reels are not in our colections or Acumulations! Some are only colecting one type or series of reels, we know this by their listing in our ORCA mag. My grandson specilizes in HURDS and their combos, also Oflugers, and pre 1920 Shakesperes, Harvy Garrison in Florida specilizes in Shakespers, and a true athority, have a doubt? ask a one or more of these masters! We ahve chemist, lawyers, DRs , comercial boat Captains, barbars, electricians, Professors, and the list is endless, thats why the site is used so much. NOW why dont you join ORCA? let us know your collecting intrest regardless of make or modle and share you views with us (REEL NUTS)) I am for what its worth a repair , warenty and service cent for the major reel companies! again I and the rest of us invite you to join ORCA, Col. Milton lorens aka SWIM JIG your OHIO conection a application form is in the first part of our site or send me your mailing address I will mail you a application!

[Harvey]

My Suggestion: Move to the front of the bus and get involved.
"H"

[john elder]

Dear Lurker: This board is the 21str century version of my father's Liar's Bench". We owned a grocery store/gas station/hardware store/post office in a little town in Indiana when I was growing up. Dad put a big bench in the front of the store and all the old crusties would roll in every morning and sit around and chat a bit...lots of dead air, interspiced with lively conversations...that's kinda what happens here...we're all sitting here...every once in awhile someone decides to say something It's okay! Lots better than just hawking assorted stuff as occurs on other places..that's okay, too, but not required! So, as harvey said, jump in with your own pack of lies any time!

[Lurker]

First, I would like to thanks everyone for their responses. Len your response goes to the meat of one of my questions and is the primary reason I asked the question. Why more people read/lurk and do not participate? The question that Harvey response raises is if were that easy why hasn't more readers/lurkers moved to the front of the bus? What are the requirements to sit there. Lastly, John's response is more what I expected and met more with my observations. What if someone would sit in Norm's bar stool at Cheers? Would they be met with open arms or would it be considered a hostile act? Is it possible that John nailed it in a round about way?

[Ron Mc]

Why doesn't this site get more activity? It seems like all that is here are the same handful of posters responding to one another. You have a great concept for a club, but why no activity? Is membership growing or falling?

your observation is incorrect.
Read the threads - any time any one presents a question regarding the subject of this board (you know, reels) the widespread effort in helping the individual is commendable.
Read the threads.
Your thread title is also incorrect - Troll from the back of the bus.

[Lurker]

Thanks all. Ron answered all my questions in one post.

[SWIM JIG]

John, You from a small town? YIKES! wondersnever cease! Dad never owned a store, was involved with a bus line , it too had a bench in front of it, and before the next bus was do to arive or leave these wonderful people would swap stories , and Whittle with a pocket knife on a stick of wood, The undertaker used ceader or pine, the drugist used maple the gunsmith used walnut, and the bus driver used what ever was avalible , now as talk of fishing, or lake frieghters comming and going in the Black river , or will the INDIANS beat New YORK today etc or whom will be wingwalking On SQEEKY BILLs airplane, today DAD owned a GREAT LAKES TRAINER he done arial photogrphy from, PHILL has a Photo dad took of the old MESSIBACH plant in ELRIA OHIO, I can remeber as the pile of assorted wood chips got larger and the different colors of the wood mixed ,how much these men knew and shared < never a cross word, certanly wish for those days again, Or do we as ORCANS have them yet? the only differance is the distance between us yet with a key stroke we are on (that bench) enjoying a long renewed friendship! Thanks guys for you sharing that wonderful bench! Col. milton lorens aka SWIM JIG in the state OF OHIO

[john elder]

Milt...yes! Staunton, Indiana...about 15 miles from terre Haute...one stop sign...still that way today!

I think lurker was wondering if it was safe to post without some pompous *bass* jumping down his throat. Lurker, pls put on a little thicker skin and jump on in. Sit between Milt and me...he knows all the good stuff and will share in a heartbeat...I'll fill in the blanks with appropriate misinformation and take the bullets!

[Ron Mc]

maybe I'm the one that needs the thicker skin, but for February I counted 23 new board members in 22 days. And that is only the people that are big enough to step forward and be accountable.

[Harvey]

John,
I remember those benches very well. I am from a small town in central Indiana also, Lewisville, to be exact. We did have a STOP LIGHT and TWO benches. One in front of the local garage and another in front of the hardware store. The real hang out was the grain elevator! They had a whole row of benches and chairs for the farmers to set in and tell how much money they were loosin’ . We had a very vibrant country town till the interstate went thru in 1960. A couple years ago, I took my daughter back to show her where I was raised and the town is a ghost town now. The only thing that has grown is the cemetery! But, lo and behole, my plot is still empty!

Boy, those were the good ol' days!
“H”

[Brian F.]

If you are looking at the member list as to who joined up, many of them are simply doing so as a form of spam, especially the ones with website links. I volunteered to be a moderator to help monitor for spam but there are other things that I look for. The ground rules on our opening page to this board are pretty clear but I think many bypass it altogether. So, as a reminder of what it says:

"This is a private message board, and all posts are subject to deletion if the moderator so desires. Anonymous posts can be removed regardless of the subject. Be forewarned that if these pages become a burden due to outrageous posts, it will be removed from the system."

[SWIM JIG]

Ok harvy, yes they certanly done in a lot of towns, Corbin KY, is bypased original home of KFY, and its combo small gas station and tackle shop owned by the the KFC folks including old Harlan himself, OLD rt42 from Cleveland to GA, i used to take it back to FORT KNOX ky from cleveland OH. to get back to camp, always bought a meal and gas yup, high test for my plds was 22.9 gal 1956, also bought a few tackle items , a nice shakesper bait caster $4.75 +tax, eagal Claw hooks a 6 pack 19 cents, When the new rt 75 was built a lot of things went away, all because people wanted to get there faster? tell me what does anyone do with the time they save? Is there a time bank to put it in? And Harvy lets hope that grave plot stays empty for a long time to come! Just took in the show at HOLIDAY tOHIO this past saterday, the OHIO PIKE is 1/2 mile from mu home, did I use it? NO I took the senic route along Lake erie thru Toledo and some Of the nicest farm country in OHIO west till I saw the road soth to the SHOW! wow the time went fast saw a lot of country still got there before the show started and enjoyed a wonderfull day! time ? why worry just leave a bit earlier! Me? I got a lot more shows to do a lot more ORCAN s I want to visit with , and a lot of TIME Your Ohio conection Col. M. lorens aka SWIM JIG

[john elder]

geez, Harv, you had a stop light AND a grain elevator?! big city stuff! We had to go the 4 miles over to Brazil to get to a grain elevator! But we had plenty of farmers complaining about their losses, regardless...funny how things were never just right...but they all bought new John Deeres and Cadillacs every couple years Of course, they actually owned their farms in those days...their kids and grandkids really have something to complain about, if they are in the biz at all.

Milt, is KFY a subsidiary? Kentucky fried Yak?

[SWIM JIG]

No it was suposed to be (KFC) and a person got a GOOD SIT DOWN dinner with melt in your mouth biskets, Their first food palce was at the old HOTEL in downtown CORBIN KY. Any way in the days before that franchise junk and wall paper past they call mashed potatoes , they made a real fine dinner! Cost with seconds? or thirds? $2.45 And those potatoes were real pealed and mashed just like we got at FORT KNOX! and that bowl of chicken soup can only be compared to AMISH COUNTRY SOUP! Now for BRAZIL INDIANA? is the brick works still there? When I was stationed at Grayling MICH. a friend of mine in ROSE city MICH ask me to go get a load of Bricks with him, he had a flat beed trailer and a GMC 6 cyl tractor , what a trip! darn thing empty only ran 66 mph and loaded tops was 45-to 55 mph. first and only time I was ever in Brazil ind. 1961 Whee john I didnt think you was a farmer boy? a lot of flat land over there! hmmmn we need to get you colecting INDIANA reels and Give Jim maden some compotition? Boy you are keeping me YOUNG! your OHIO conection Col. M. lorens aka SWIM JIG

[john elder]

that must have been some fun, making the run down killer highway 41...or did you suffer thru on 59? Either way, it makes you appreciate the interstates a little. i think the last of the clay brick factories closed 20 years or more ago...most of the people on that liar's bench, if they didn't work/retire from the Ayrshire coal mines, came from the clay brick factories...had two uncles worked there. In the '50s, I believe they had 7 plants cooking bricks...got a big monument placed in Brazil Park, announcing the city as the Clay Brick Capital of the World...you just can't get bigger than that! i think by the time I bailed for college in '66, there were two still going. The coal company got thru gutting the country and turning half the ponds into sulfur pits...went off to Arizona and Montana where there was plenty of room to dig. In their defense, they did end up turning most of the land back into good farm land before they left and the pits that didn't go red produced some of the finest bass fishing in the country. I can still remember standing on those banks and watching some huge bass saunter by...absolutely ignored anything I threw in front of them! guess if you see them, they see you, eh?

[Richard Lodge]

That's why there are so few people. Lots of Hoosiers, Milt from Ohio, Phil from another state that starts with a vowel. Ah, but I must admit to be another Indiana native, John and Harvey. I grew up in Madison, down on the Ohio, just a stone's throw from Kentucky (if you shoot the stone out of a canon, of course). My wife gives me a hard time for being a native Midwesterner (long since transplanted to the East Coast). I tell her I grew up in a CITY of 12,000 people, the county seat by gosh! I have to admit that out here, a city is more likely to have 100,000 or 1,000,000 people in it. But Madison had at least 5-6 stop lights, 3 volunteer fire stations, one of the first blue pumper trucks I ever saw and it's home to the Madison Regatta, a wild hydroplane race on the Ohio. Not many fly reels to be found out there, though, since it's tough catching gar and catfish on flies.

[Dan Basore]

Rember Timko's Bait Shop?

One day he loaned me a key to The Izaak Walton League park with a big fenced in strip pit lake. We unlocked the gate and drove our pickup with a flat bottom boat in the back in and locked up. No one had made an entry in the log book in many years.

We got to the water and the big fish lined up to look at us. I took a spotted bass bigger than the state record but no one knew what it was so we ate it. Still have the picture though. Timko let us join for $10 plus $1. for a key and we had it all to ourselves for many years till my pal mentioned it to the Walton League booth guys at the Indy Sports Show. They merged clubs and we were out.

They just about wore our old Langleys out with bass up to 9 pounds and big pan fish...all to our selves. Boy for the good ol days.

[John Savu]

Since 1981, I have tried to read and digest everything I can on old tackle. The information you get on this site, is as good , no, better, than anyother site. There may be only 20 or so serious posters here, but the knowledge is unreal. I freguent many boards, on many topics, but if you have a question on reels, this is the place. On other tackle boards, you have supposed experts, talking about lures that were made 30 years ago, trying to make them collectible to the masses. That does not happen here. ORCA is a viable organization, and this board reflects it.
I hope you spend more time here.

[Rubber Reel Lady]

Phil may be from a state that starts with a vowel, but he was born and raised in New Jersey. And his parents came from? Where else? Indiana! His mother was from Peru and his dad was from Greenfield. Is there some signifigance to having a Hoosier background?

[Guest]

Lurker, from your initial post you were on thin ice. I understand your questions and concerns. However, sometimes the obvious is best unsaid. This board has some great information and some great members, but like anywhere they have some a--holes. If you look at the numbers, out of 14 or so responses all but one or two were civil and honest, and genuine. In this day and age that ain't too bad. Thanks for your mature attitude. My dad always told me that hollow drums make the loudest noise. Try this site www.joeyates.com Respectable postings, lots of participates, but this is the place for "reel" knowledge

[Richard Lodge]

Yes, having an Indiana background does carry a certain mystique. Only a true Hoosier can tell you the best place to fish for rock bass in China Creek (or even where China, Indiana, is for that matter). ONly a true Hoosier can fondly recall the tree growing out of the courthouse roof in Greensburg (rumor has it that the tree was such a tourist attraction that whenever it died, the city planted a new one and didn't tell anyone).
Truth be told, with so many people with Indiana roots showing up on the Reel Talk board, maybe we should set up a new SIG: Indiana Reel Collectors Who Don't Collect Indiana Reels (the IRCWDCIR SIG, for you folks keeping track).

[Jim Madden]

Unbelievable! My farm background is a little north around LaPaz, but I was born in Terre Haute. I had an uncle from Brazil, fished the pits around Rockville, tracked the Hoosier Poet to Greenfield, and sneaked away from college in Bloomington to hit Brown County and Monroe Lake. I thought I was the only one who appreciated the frost on the pumpkin and the fodder in the shock. I guess old farmers had a special appreciation for fine old equipment even if a generation later it's a fishing reel. I can't be in your club cuz I ain't leavin'!

[john elder]

Dan: I believe the Izaak Walton lake was just north of Cloverland, wasn't it? Bob Ardell and I jumped alot of fences, but don't think we ever got the cohones to go in there. and Jim...let's get a date on you...how many of Mayor Tucker's cat houses could you hit with a rock while standing on the courthouse lawn in Terre Haute ? If you don't know the answer, you're too young

hey, also note that the page has scrolled down another six inches with a notable absence...that means that milt is still typing! get ready