Pond Mountain Tales

By Ed Gentle

Pond Mountain Tales recalls experiences of the author during his eleven-year stay at Pond Mountain, a two-hundred-acre farm, with his first wife, their three sons, and eight dogs.

Close encounters with snakes, blue herons, geese, turkeys, and vultures were a daily experience. Three lakes teeming with fish framed a story of the author's fishing parties for claimants in one of his settlements. A parody of point and counterpoint between a famous plaintiff lawyer and a chemical manufacturer is also featured.

The author's house at Pond Mountain sports a two-boat garage opening on both ends for his bass boats, and the two stories of the Pipe reflect the competiveness of tournament bass fishing.

Turmoil and psychological paradoxes in the author's life during this period are reflected in To Be True and Chocolate Pants.

Though the author has left Pond Mountain, his memories live on in these stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514412824

Ed Gentle

Ed Gentle was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on February 17, 1953. He has a BS from Auburn, an MS from Miami, a BA and an MA from Oxford, and a JD from Alabama, completing his formal education in 1981. He received Danforth, Maytag, Hugo Black, and Rhodes scholarships. He has practiced law for over thirty years and is the founding partner of his law firm, which specializes in the settlement of mass torts involving medical devices, chemicals, smelters, contaminants, taxes, ERISA claims, antitrust, and other claims. He began fishing at age two and is a tournament bass angler, qualifying for the Bassing America and BAIT Classics. He was married twice, is divorced, has three sons, and lives alternatively in two lake houses with his lab, Charlie.

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Copyright © 2015 by Ed Gentle.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/13/2015

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Contents

Introduction

Rattler Truce

Color Matters

Bottle Rocket Buzzards

The Pipe I

Wormhole

To Be True

Charlie’s Woof

Father Goose

The Pipe II

Grass Wars

Big Tom and Big Willy

Dog Gone

Alabama This Time?

Why I’m Sticking with Fish or Don’t Be Naming The Calves

The Day Lawrence Became Lazarus

Author Biography

Book Summary

Introduction

Twenty years ago, I moved into the country with my first wife and our three sons and named our place Pond Mountain, because it had both. They are grown, and we are divorced, but these tales remain.

Though I live in the city, my heart remains at Pond Mountain.

Ed Gentle, Summer 2015

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July 2006

Rattler Truce

An uneasy truce between snake and man, find you and kill you, so stay out of hand.

Man’s vanity of control, ownership, and immortality collide with nature’s truths of death, poison, and stealth.

We walked a dirt road, and a baby copperhead escaped discovery by pressing himself flat, only revealed by his green tail.

His mother guards our bird feeder. Silently, patiently, and deliberately, the uneasy partnership between viper and man is kept.

It was dry this summer, and the snakes came to our ponds, challenging the truce for a drink.

First, the black racer crossed our drive. When I called his hand, he bowed up and threatened to strike. Twitching his tail like a rattler, he bluffed his way to freedom.

A few days later, our dogs found the three-foot rattler.