The Trona Railway office used to have a rectangular lily pond by it’s front door. When I was about twelve. the decided to fill it in. Maybe they decided it was a hazard or maybe they decided that it was too expensive to maintain or maybe they didn’t like the traffic of all the kids that were attracted to it.

Anyway, in the weeks before they drained it one of the railway employees decided that a good way to get rid of the goldfish in the pond was too allow kids to fish for them. The idea was us to catch them and take them home to live out their lives in a fish bowel. It started off with just a few kids but word spread fast and there were more and more. The railway had lent it’s net to the first kids but soon we were resorting to hooks made from pins and lines from sewing thread.

The railway staff couldn’t have imagined that fishing in that pond would become so popular. They had to put an end to it. I don’t know if I remember this right but I think they ended up catching fish for kids that brought a fish bowl to put them in and promised to take care of them. I know that I ended up with two that I did my best to care for.