TIGHT LINES
A GOOD OLD-FASHIONED COME TO JESUS MEETING
with Andrew Spencer
BMexia, Texas, I was something of a rebel. It's not that I sought out ways to irritate the powersthat be; it's more that ways to irritate them sought me out. The main power-that-was for me in those days was the principal of Mexia High School, a guy named Steve Hill. Steve and I got along pretty well most of the time. Stress the "most of the time" there.

When it comes to picking up after litterbugs, Andrew isn't kidding around. Photo by Jill Sandole

Hard as it might be for you to believe, there were actually times when Steve and I didn't see eye-to-eye so much. One such example arose after a particularly memorable staging of the one-act play version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." I'd directed the play in what I felt like was a pretty cool style, but apparently there were a few disgruntled residents of the town. They took some issue with our setting the play in Mexia, and they had an even bigger issue with the fact that we'd said it took place "sometime next week." Apparently the folks in Mexia aren't fans of social satire, but I digress.

The morning after the performance to which we'd invited the entire town, Steve met me at the front door of the school. I was prepared to accept his thanks for my stirring and thought-provoking efforts. I smiled at Steve.

He didn't smile back. Instead, he just looked down at me and said in what was clearly not a tone of happiness at seeing me, "Mister Spencer, you and me is fixin' to have us a good-old-fashioned Come to Jesus Meeting."

I had no idea what a Come to Jesus Meeting was but, judging by Steve's expression, it was not something I was going to enjoy. And boy-oh-boy was I right on that one. It was kind of like being a student in high school rather than a teacher. Over the course of about thirty minutes, I got tarred and feathered, metaphorically speaking, for what was labeled my "publicity stunt," and I decided then and there that I did not ever again want to be on the business-end of a "Come to Jesus Meeting."

That said, I was out at Surfside Beach recently, and the amount of garbage on the beach was not to be believed. And as anglers, it's our duty to keep the beaches clean. So, brethren and sistren of the fishing variety, we're fixin' to have us a good-oldfashioned Come to Jesus Meeting.

Repent ye sinners, for the segue is upon us.

On Earth Day, the Nantucket High School Surf Club sponsored a beach clean-up. Uber-kudos to the officers and members of the Surf Club for organizing this whole thing. Much thanks, too, to the folks who came out on Saturday morning to help clean. And similar thanks to the DPW folks who volunteered their time to help transport what turned out to be over sixty pounds - yeah, you read that right, I said sixty pounds - of garbage that was taken off the island's beaches.

Friends and neighbors, that's a bunch of garbage, and it all came from pretty concentrated areas.

And the thing is, it wasn't just run-of-the-mill garbage. Yeah, there were plenty of Styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, aluminum cans and other assorted stuff. But there was also a half-empty spray can of brake cleaner and another person found a few full bottles of motor oil. Seriously, people, that's just embarrassing for anyone who lives here. There's no excuse for throwing trash on the beach, especially this time of year when plenty of us, yours truly included, get pretty self-righteous about the summer people trashing our beaches. We only have ourselves to blame, and it's time for us to step up and start cleaning the beaches. I realize that there aren't a lot of trash cans always available and I realize it's inconvenient to spend your time on the beach picking up trash. But before you start with the excuses, consider the alternative. Trust me when I tell you that standing in the midst of garbage strewn around the beach is not only disgusting, it's also a great start to destroying the environment, and that means no more fishing. I'm not a big "tree hugger," but we've got to do something to keep our beaches clean.

With that in mind, the gang over at Bill Fisher Tackle has set up a trash exchange. If you stop in the shop, they'll give you a trash bag, free of charge. Take it to the beach when you're fishing, fill it with garbage - which, unfortunately, won't take you very long - and bring it back to the shop. They'll dispose of it for you and they'll reward your efforts with a free surfcasting plug. Not a bad deal, when you think about it. Yeah, filling that bag will be thirty minutes out of your life that you're never getting back, but it beats the hell out of fishing knee-deep in garbage. And it'll help all of us. So chip in and do your part.

And, in the truest spirit of irony, I'll be recycling this idea in the near future. It might be good or it might be bad. It all depends on how much progress we all make in cleaning the beaches.

In other words, don't make me host another Come to Jesus Meeting.

Tight lines. I