Everett "Cotton" Robuck, What a Man!

Cotton pictured doing one of his many favorite things, fishing. That alligator you see on the far bank came up to where he was fishing when it heard the fish splashing. Cotton ran it off by hollaring and kicking his foot at it.
He was an amazing shot with a shotgun. I rember riding with him driving his pickup one time Mike, his son, and I were the "birddogs" back then. My dad was to our right sitting by the pasenger side window. As we were driving along Cotton look to his left and saw three birds flying parallel to us traveling the same way we were going. He stuck his shotgun out the window had us hold the wheel and shot. He got two of the three birds. That would be highly illegal now and was then too I guess. It is a good example of one of the too many to tell stories of Cotton.
I stood there casting away while Cotton chuckeled and just kept pulling them in. I did get to help him by putting the minnows on his hook. I was a neat experience as he did this and so many other things for us when we were kids. Who doesn't remember being over at the Robuck house when he would say, "Lets make a freezer of icecream", or, "Go home and get your swimsuits on". We would all run or bike home get back and load up in the back of his pickup and off he would take us to Fahrenthold's resevoir. There is no telling what kind of trouble he helped us stay out of by showing us how to have fun.
Cotton caught this fish and a bunch more. He was using minnows, oh, and by the way he was just 94. He caught five more fish than I did that day. On the ride home I remember saying to him. Cotton, I think I know why you lived to be ninety-four, I said, you don't worry about anything. He turned looked at me and as serious as I'd ever seen him said, " Why worry, you can't do anything about some things anyway".