The Seine

^{Page edited 10-Feb-22. MT}

Source: Edward Ellsworth Laughlin (In his own words.)

There was a city-type man at the creek one day with a minnow seine, catching minnows for fish bait. My brother and I knew he was from town by the way he was dressed. He wore hip boots and did not have the standard country attire of bib overalls. We stopped by to admire his seine. I said, "You ought to see OUR seine." He didn't say much in return, so, being ignored, we went on our way.

My brother Scott (Francis Scott Laughlin) and I had made ourselves a seine by opening up a burlap bag. All one had to do was find the right string to pull and it would open right up. We then found two nice straight sticks for handles. We tied one on each side, and that was a seine. It was not a great one, but we had a lot of fun with it, catching minnows and crawdads.

A day or so after we had talked to the city fellow at the creek, the Sheriff and one of his men drove into our driveway at the farm. It was around noon and Dad was at the house for dinner. We all went out to see why the Sheriff was there. He announced that he had a search warrant.

Dad asked where he wanted to start. He said he would start at the barn, and he headed that way. Dad hung back and said to my mother, "Mabel, you better dump the wine in the garden." It was Prohibition time, and any alcoholic beverage was illegal.

Dad went on out to follow the officers and stayed with them. They looked through the barn and all the outbuildings, then the Sheriff turned to my dad and said, "I guess it looks like you don't have a seine here after all. Sorry to bother you."

Dad said, "Seine? I had Mabel dump 30 gallons of good mulberry wine in the garden for nothing!" The Sheriff said, "That's a terrible thing to do!"

Note: A seine is a fishing net which hangs vertically in the water with floats at the top and weights at the bottom edge, the ends being drawn together to encircle the fish. They are illegal or regulated in many areas as they may restrict the natural movement of fish within waterways.

For more stories about the Laughlin families, visit Laughlin Family Stories.