A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
I believe it was somewhere around 1995 that I had another business trip to Edwards AFB to support a Space Shuttle recovery operation. DiVoran flew out with me a nd stayed with Ivan and Dora in Vista, CA for the week I was at Edwards. After the recovery operations were complete, I took a week of vacation to visit with Ivan and Dora. In addition to the local fishing that Ivan usually did, he had obtained a commercial license, to take lobsters from the waters off the coast of southern California and sell them locally. I went out in the boat with him one day, while we were there in Vista, to help him with the boat while he pulled in his lobster traps. He showed me how to inspect the lobsters for gender and how to measure them for legal size.
Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/lobster-trap-wooden-lobster-fishing-4346279/
Ivan regaled us with his frustrations about some people who were stealing his lobster catches. It had been going on for a while before we got there for our visit. He had called the local Sherriff for help about the problem, but they were never able to catch the poachers in the act. That didn’t stop us from having plenty of fresh lobsters from Ivan’s traps, to eat while we were there. They were plentiful and they were delicious! Every dinner with Ivan and Dora on that trip was an ‘All You Can Eat’ lobster feast.
DiVoran’s brother, David, and his wife, Susan, lived just a mile or two from Ivan and Dora, there in Vista, so they would join us occasionally for a lobster dinner at Ivan and Dora’s. David is an avid hunter and he invited us all to his house for dinner one evening. He had just returned from a bird hunting trip to the interior of Mexico. He told us many of the local farmers there, were being inundated by doves, and that the Mexican government had requested hunters to come help reduce the threat to the crops. After the hunt, the hunters were allowed to freeze and bring back as many of the birds as they wanted to into the U.S.
Photo: https://www.getducks.com/hunts/mexico-white-wingeddove-hunting/
These were fairly large White-winged doves and we all enjoyed that tasty meal (except for DiVoran who never eats any kind of wildlife). After that interesting meal (being careful not to bite down on a lead pellet), the six of us continued a wonderful evening together with a walk down memory lane.
If I remember right, I don’t’ believe Ivan’s commercial lobster business lasted very long after our visit that year. With the high price of fuel, the cost of commercial licenses, and the fact that the Sherriff was never able to catch Ivan’s lobster thieves, he just didn’t think it was worth the effort. That was a shame because I believe he enjoyed the work and, if it hadn’t been for the poachers, it could have helped with his retirement income.
Ivan was good at, and had always liked, tinkering with mechanical things, and as it turned out, he bought a vacuum cleaner repair shop, there in Vista, and worked at that job for several years (between fishing trips). But that’s another story for another time, and doesn’t involve fishing. This concludes the series of memories we have of ‘Fishing with Ivan‘ and I hope you have enjoyed our memories of the times we have spent with Ivan and Dora as much as I have enjoyed writing about them. Join me next week for a surprise blog that I hope you will also enjoy.
—–The End—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
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