Nine years had passed since my daughter, Anna, and I shared rocking chairs on a cabin's deck at Gaston's White River Resort where the setting sun left us peacefully creaking back and forth well into the darkness.
How wonderful it was to enjoy the gift of reunion at this place I consider the most relaxing and tranquil anywhere.
Now 36, with only 10 months remaining to her retirement as a U.S. Navy Chief, we relived the mutual trials and tribulations as parents and the military career she chose at just 17. It was difficult to imagine that almost 20 years later she's preparing to retire at age 37 after having earned an undergraduate (and soon a master's) degree while serving her country.
Chief Anna has never shied from anything during a young yet profoundly challenging life, including high expectations of herself and those around her.
As we caught up there, rocking in the twilight, I reflected on how deeply proud I am of her and her older brother, Brandon. While their childhoods differed in many ways, they both thankfully grew into wonderful and responsible adults. What more could any parent want?
I thought of her graduation from boot camp and the determination in her eyes that day to succeed. She not only accomplished every goal at the time, but all those she couldn't have seen coming.
Digging out the column I wrote about an essay Anna had submitted for a college English assignment after our first visit here nine years ago, I was humbled to re-read her thoughts at the time: "My advice to fathers is to make time to get to know a daughter, to discover how she thinks and feels about everything. Let her know you care. Spend time with her regularly ... Share your interests and hobbies with her. Show her, through action, how spending time with her is important. The advice this daughter has is to learn to speak directly to him to get his feelings and views. You'll find the memories and knowledge he holds are priceless and your memories will last forever. The most important thing is simply to spend the time together and ask meaningful questions. Personally, I recommend a couple of one-on-one days together along the river amid the peace of a place like Gaston's. I know my father and I will return to those rocking chairs one day. The only difference then will be that we will not have lost the connection forged as adults."
Chief Anna could well have been a soothsayer back in 2005, as here we sat reconnecting face-to-face yet again in these same wooden rockers on the same deck. The truly good and meaningful stuff of life.
Other than the soul-soothing inspired by this unique retreat beside the clear, cold river, Gaston's is best known for world-class trout fishing.
And so the next morning we were piling into a 20-foot river boat with Steve Lopez, who is Anna's age. After 11 years as a guide on the White River, Steve said he's risen to seventh on the seniority list of 14 full-time guides at Gaston's. That number constantly fluctuates but is never fewer than enough to satisfy the demand.
Steve said his plan is to one day achieve the No. 1 position. That may come sooner rather than later as the remaining older river guides retire or depart, leaving the need for capable youth to replace them in such a specialized vocation.
As the morning ticked away and we predictably began reeling in one rainbow after another, I was impressed by Steve's vigilance. He was continually up and down, grabbing the landing net, removing and attaching lures and unhooking the fish to pitch them into the live well until we'd reached our daily limit.
We also learned how soft-spoken Steve is a professed "adrenalin junkie," who has taken to planting organic foods at home since his mother came down with cancer more that a year ago. He told us in years past and in off-seasons he traveled to prepare ironwork for skyscrapers, sometimes laboring several hundred feet in the air.
Steve returned to Arkansas from California when he was 12 because he missed the forests, streams and the people of the Ozarks. Today, he's divorced with a 12-year-old son, and makes a two-hour round-trip drive to work at Gaston's.
He isn't one of those "let's sit-and-swelter-with bait" kinda guides. Oh no. He's ready to switch from jigs to spoons to crankbaits or whatever he believes will work at the time, emphasizing how the ever-fluctuating river level demands adaptability.
"I had a guy in the boat with me not long ago who loved fishing with spoons and he did really well," he said. "His secret to catching a lot of trout was to let the spoon sink to the bottom, then retrieve it six or seven reel turns before pausing to let it sink again before continuing that same pattern."
Later, I told Anna how impressed I am of the life she has forged on her own. And I thanked her again for serving.
The next morning's departure was bittersweet. We hugged again, climbed behind our respective wheels and drove away in different directions. But, God willing, we'll return once again to those peaceful chairs overlooking the majestic river before another nine years passes.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial on 07/29/2014