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One Of the first Parks
fisherman west of the Mississippi River was James Delos Parks, pictured to the left in
this 1918 photograph by Nell Parks. This peaceful setting was found in Ardmore, Oklahoma,
where my family stopped for a while on their western migration from Pennsylvania. Seems
that this mans father was a circut preacher in Oklahoma, a fisherman of men, as it were.
Another reason that this quiet spot on the riverbank was so peaceful (as we shall soon
find out) was that James Delos Parks was fishing without his kids for a change. Kids are
wonderful, and it is incumbent upon us fathers to teach them how to fish. However,
children, water, barbed hooks and bait do not necessarily yeild a serene afternoon of
rejuvenating ones spirit while wetting a hook! Some
First hand accounts will be placed into evidence on following
pages. On the 20th of March, 1897, a son was born to James Delos Parks in Newton, Kansas.
James Glen Parks, my father, was raised and taught to fish in Kansas and Oklahoma. Glen
did a stint in the Navy as an aviation rigger, met and married Nellie Ray and eventually
put down roots in San Diego County. My brother Jim was born in Wichita Falls, and I was
born in 1921, shortly after arriving in Southern California. It did not take this
mid-western family long to discover salt water fishin'. |
