YOUTUBE FuLlPJtVrm4
Um, I'm a Robin Dexter and I live up on, um, 2,638 straight up by lake Patton up the top of that long hill. And, um, I'm 73 years old. Um, last year was my first year at home for an entire year, first year since we were married. And, uh, and since we moved to Washington in 70, yeah, 71 70. By 72, I was on the stern of a boat as a crew member and fished herring and the winter of 72. And in the winter of 73, the Japanese floated the pound and the price of Sockeye went through the roof. And all the old timers couldn't believe it. And I, I was on the deck of a pretty good boat and that's what built my first house or bought my first house. The herring fishery was, came into its own when the herring fishery had been over-fished and ruined in Japan. And that's the market for, uh, hearing eggs and it, and it was, it was another one of those, a lottery ticket. I bought a boat with a partner, another other Bellingham, old timer that's still around. And, um, we bought a boat as partners, um, with our hearing money and started fishing sword. And then an opportunity came along to use the boat for Sam and, uh, uh, a friend of ours that lost a salmon boat, um, asked to use mine. And once I had done that for a year, um, I thought it was a pretty good idea. So I bought a permit in prince William sound and I was there until, um, I sold, I sold my boat in the, the, let's see the winter of 2019. Uh, my son lives next door and he's, uh, he is also a fishermen and he's got, um, he is in a blended marriage. His, his wife had two kids when they got married and now they have a three-year-old daughter who's over here almost every day. Um, and, uh, And, uh, we have a daughter who lives in on the big island and Hilo, which is where we've been for the winter. Um, and those two kids are 13 and nine and, um, they're, uh, they, we, we've done a lot of communication with them and we've spent a lot of time with. I've never considered myself a traveler at all. Um, I don't like going traveling. Uh, my wife is really irritated by that because there are a million places she would like to experience it. And in my lifetime, Hawaii, Alaska and Washington have kind of blended together and as home. I like to catch a halibut once in a while because they're good to eat, but honestly, I'm just dealing with the weather, the wind and the, and the water, um, is, uh, is a pretty big thrill. A lot of times. We're no saints on boats. Cause you could catch every salmon in the Pacific with 25 guys and save all that stupid diesel burning. But I have had some real, real thrills, um, whether to the weather or big catches or whatever. I've lost a bunch of friends to fishing accidents. I mean, and they're weather related and I have really strong opinions about it. There was no such thing as a survival suit when I started you went overboard. And that was that. Um, I, yeah, there, I have seen remarkable change in that. And, and from one of the w we were worse than the mining industry when I got into fishing, um, I mean the boats were junk and, um, and they've been, and everything has improved and very quickly and partially, I think it's because of the value of seafood. I'm going to survive until I climb in a box. But now, um, the pace of the world has accelerated so much and fishing was lucrative for a long time. And the con the competitiveness of it doesn't give a 40 and a 50 year old. The time to reflect the way I do. I, uh, I've had both shoulders done, um, you know, whatever they call that surgery and both knees, none of them have been replaced. I mean, they're still okay. But, um, you know, my entire body is riddled with arthritis is what the doctor said. So I've got aches and pains, but no, um, I just had. Carpal tunnel surgery too. So, uh, on, on both sides of my body, I've had the knees and the shoulders in the, in the wrists, uh, operated on, um, in the last 20 years. May, you know, if I don't, I don't, I mean, crank is probably the words, the world's word for it. Um, it, it, it represents something that happens to people as they age. And I notice it in other people my age, and I notice it in myself and it's just impatience. It's just, you know, listen kid don't tell me how to change a light bulb because I've changed a thousand Oaks. Pretty much, all of my free time has been devoted to, um, in some kind of environmental involvement one way or the other. I miss fishing a lot and I might go back a little bit, but I, I mean, I really feel compelled to be more involved in steering this incredible change because it's not all good and it's not, you know, it's not all, some of it's very concerned. I've had really great arguments with some friends that work at university about, you know, whether whether we should, uh, ever wish on our kids, uh, physical and manual labor, um, that she thinks I'm crazy for saying, you know, you get paid a lot to be a crane operator, or, you know, fishing's a good life. I don't know, then they don't want any part of that. That's get an a or your life is ruined.