Salmon and Salt: Remembering Fishing with Grandfather

Where'd you get those shoes?

Easy. They're from DSW. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour. The boots that turn grocery aisles into runways. And all the styles that show off the many sides of you. From daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes.

Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have supervision, enhanced hearing, extraordinary reflexes, to be dare we say superhuman? Well Roku's new Pro Series TV can't do any of that for you. But with a 4k screen, side firing speakers and a blazing fast refresh rate, it'll sure feel like it. Elevate your entertainment using all your favorite apps like iHeart and play all your music, radio and podcasts with the new Roku Pro Series. Your senses aren't better. Your TV is. Pros trust the Home Depot for heavy duty storage solutions for any job site or garage. Right now get up to 25% off select online storage and organization impact and water resistant totes and shelving built to hold up to 2500 pounds storage systems have space for all your tools and protect them in the garage on the job site and everywhere in between save time and maximize efficiency with adjustable shelving customized to your business needs shop and save on pro grade storage at the Home Depot how pros get more done whether you're ordering wings for the game whipping up a seven layer dip or ordering pizza there's something about football that makes you want to eat and this football season Uber Eats has the best deals on game day food no matter what you're craving from two for one pizza to buy one get one wings Uber Eats will be dropping new deals each week all season long Uber Eats official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order now terms and conditions apply see app for details this is lee habib and this is our american stories the show where america is the star and the american people and you can listen to the show on the iheart radio app or wherever you get your podcast up next a story from call merlantis carl is a marine who received the navy cross for his service in vietnam and the author of matterhorn and what it is like to go to war today he shares with us a story of his time growing up in the pacific northwest and working with his grandfather in one of america's most dangerous professions take it away carl i was born in astoria oregon and you know my dad was actually in the battle of the bulge at the time i was born and i grew up in the town about 15 miles away that's my mother went up there to have me at the hospital there seaside oregon which was a logging town a little town about 2500 people the two major professions where i grew up were fishing and logging and i actually looked it up they are the two most dangerous occupations that we have about every year somebody's father would would die in the woods or somebody would drown and i remember five of my friends lost their fathers during the time i was going to school with them so dying death was it wasn't morbid nobody we just didn't think much about it it was like oh yeah alan's dad just got rolled over while long and he died and uh you know in your eight or nine you know it's you just plug along and most of the kids in the summer tried to get jobs in the woods because they paid really well that was back in the day when you know labor was was making good money i mean you know detroit was booming and you could work on the assembly lines and you know be able to take vacations in florida and my grandfather was a commercial fisherman scandinavian he was a swedish fin and uh he was a salmon fisherman gillnetter and uh i love to tell this story about him because give you an idea of his character he he was he was he was working a log boom by himself and the two booms came together and crushed both of his legs and he crawled about a mile to get to his car and drove himself to the hospital and one of the legs had to be amputated and he couldn't he couldn't do log booms anymore and of course fishing he needed help so my older brother and i were then brought into the family business so i fished with my grandfather when i was from about age 13 i guess into seventh grade it was a wonderful experience because how many kids actually get to work with their grandfather and you know spend time with him lots of time because in fishing it's like it's it's massive activity when the salmon are hitting and the nets out and you have to try and pull those nets in as fast as you can and and then you set up another what they call drifts and you put the net back out and then you're there you just sit and wait for the fish to hit again and that's a lot of a lot of downtime and one of the things i laugh about it at my younger self being with my grandfather is i did nothing but chin moan the entire time i worked for him because it was like how come i have to come up at two o'clock in the morning because he's all about tides you have to go out on the tide you have to you have to hit the fish when the tide is is slack or running your way so you know if it's two in the morning it's that's you get up and go to work and i learned how to do that and i actually slept with my grandmother my grandfather it was really old country i mean you know and i i can remember the smell i mean it was just like they didn't use deodorant you know but so i slept in the same bed with my grandpa and grandma and then they'd rouse me out of bed at midnight or whatever and off we'd go to work and i can remember complaining all my friends work in restaurants and all the girls come and talk to them and they get to eat all the ice cream they want and i have to be up at two in the morning and go out in this rain and this cold and it's not you know i could just i could just think about my poor grandfather you know i emigrated from finland to raise this you know i mean it was uh that's it's one of those tragedies when you're young you have no idea how privileged you are to to be able to have the experiences you do and i learned a lot from my grandfather i mean one of the things was coolness under fire i mean we'd get in trouble every so often i mean tides would go wrong the wind pushes in the wrong direction we'd come up against rocks waves come in over the gunnels and grandpa was just cool i mean he if if i was doing something wrong or if we were slow getting the net out he'd be jumping up and down on his on his wooden leg and and screaming at me but when real trouble hit it was just incredible to watch him just go into sort of cool mode and solve the problem and uh he never panicked and i was i was frightened lots of times because it's dangerous work i mean that's all i can say and um i kind of grew up you know learning a lot of lessons that way the other one is you know like the first beer that i ever had was on the fourth of july and i was 13 and my grand i was on the docks with all the other fishermen they were celebrating the fourth of july and grandpa handed me a beer you know and it was like by god i'm a grown-up you know it was a wonderful feeling i i i just remember to this day just my grandfather handing me a beer and just saying you know it didn't say a word it didn't say a word but i was there with all the all the other fishermen you know so he was an important part of my life he really was and a great job on the production by monty montgomery and a special thanks to call merlantus for sharing the story of his grandfather to hear the story of those two booms and how they came together and crushed his grandfather's legs and he crawls back to the car gets himself to the hospital and gets a leg amputated only to go to another dangerous profession salmon fishing and the stories and the lessons that carl learned from his grandfather including that first beer on july 4 carmelantis the story of his grandfather here on our american story lee habib here the host of our american stories every day on this show we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country stories from our big cities and small towns but we truly can't do the show without you our stories are free to listen to but they're not free to make if you love what you hear go to our american stories dot com and click the donate button give a little give a lot go to our american stories dot com and give roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with roku tv or bring a roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like i heart radio stream your favorite playlist with the roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with roku tv streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm traveling to see your fav sports team is cool but traveling with amex platinum for the big game is even better right this way with access to dedicated card member entrances at select events you can skip the line and with access to the centurion lounge you can catch the next game on the way home that's the powerful backing of american express terms apply learn more at american express dot com slash with amex card member entrance access not limited to amex platinum card cheap caribbean is celebrating more than just the new year in 2025 cheap caribbean vacations is celebrating its 25th birthday too you're invited to join in on the birthday fun and book a beach vacation with more savings now through february 3rd you can unlock up to 250 off site-wide vacation packages celebrate these awesome savings at your favorite beach and book your next all-inclusive vacay at cheap caribbean.com your 250 off is waiting hey janice torres here and i'm austin hankwitz we're the hosts of mind the business small business success stories produced by ruby studio and intuit quickbooks catch up on seasons one and two and join us for a brand new season of the podcast as we talk to small business owners about how they manage and grow their businesses with the help of platforms like intuit quickbooks listen to mind the business small business success stories on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts