Looking for Johnny

Foreword

This trout opener will live forever in the annals of our Eastern Sierra fishing. Great memories were made, memories that some of the younger guys will be telling their kids and grandkids for years to come...It had been many years since I had laughed so hard. I'd laughed so much that my sides were hurting really bad.

                                               The Tiger Bar

                                 

By kiki

A young man named Johnny (a pseudonym) was with us on our recent fishing trip. Johnny and his dad, Johnny SR. (again a pseudonym), were on their first fishing trip to the Eastern Sierras. Unfortunately, Johnny JR., who is 21 years old but could pass for 14, got lost on the first night in June Lake. 

After stopping at Tom's Place for burgers and drinks, we arrived at midday Friday at June lake during the beginning of a massive snowstorm. By late Friday afternoon, cars and cabins were blanked with beautiful white snow. The scene around the cabins, nestled under pine trees, looked like a Christmas card scene. Later that night, Johnny played in the snow with some kids from one of the cabins. Taylor, a young girl, who was around 11 or12 years old, asked Johnny his age; when Johnny told her he was 21 years old, she told him, "you should go to the Tiger Bar; our parents are there; tell them you know Taylor, and they'll buy you a beer." 

Johnny agreed to go to the Tiger Bar, up the street from the cabins, but he wondered how he would know who Taylor's parents were; since he had never met them, Taylor told Johnny she would take care of that. Taylor found a paper plate and wrote, "I am Johnny.

 I know Taylor" Taylor and her siblings then hung the paper plate "nametag" with some fishing line over Johnny's neck. The kids then pointed Johnny toward the Tiger Bar and sent him on his way. Johnny entered the bar, pointed to his name tag with the index fingers of both hands, and asked: "who knows Taylor?" A lady said, "I do; I am her mother" again, Johnny pointed to his name tag with the index fingers of both hands and said, "I am Johnny." 

After having a couple of beers with Johnny, Taylor's parents told Johnny they were going back to the cabins and asked him if he would go back with them "no, I am going to drink another beer," Johnny told the parents. Unfortunately, Johnny must have had more than "another beer" because he went missing after that.

Saturday morning before dawn found our guys getting ready to go out and hook the big one. But one guy was missing, yup, Johnny was missing. As the guys were looking for Johnny in the bedrooms, a letter was found at the cabin's door. Taylor's letter, written very eloquently, stated that Johnny had decided to stay at the bar when asked by her parents if he was ready to return to the cabins. The note had a "P.S." it read, "everybody knows his name because we put a nametag on him.

Not finding Johnny in any of the bedrooms sleeping it off, Johnny SR did what any parent would do when a kid goes missing; he called the local sheriff's office and reported Johnny missing. Soon we had a search and rescue team with dogs, a sheriff's posse on horseback. Of course, I am exaggerating here, but we did have a couple of deputies looking for Johnny. Johnny SR tried calling Junior on his cell phone a few times but to no avail. Finally, in what must have seemed to be a lifetime to Johnny SR, Junior answered his cell phone by asking his dad, "how is the fishing?" Senior couldn't believe what he was hearing. Junior asked how the fishing was when everybody else hoped he wouldn't be found frozen to death in a snowbank. 

"Where are you, Johnny Sr asked? Junior looked at his surroundings and replied: "in the cabin, still in bed" "He's in the cabin, he's still in bed," Senior told the deputies; hearing that, the deputies rushed into the cabins asking, "where is Johnny?" Somebody answered, "whatever it is, we didn't do it" After looking in all the rooms one deputy said, "he is not in here." 

Senior again called Junior, "Junior, we looked in both cabins, and you are not in either cabin" Junior checked his surroundings and told Senior, "well, I am in a cabin, let me go outside and see which cabin I am in" 

Once outside, Junior checked the cabin for an address, finding one he gave to his dad. Senior gave the address to a deputy "he's at Emily's," (a pseudonym) said the deputy, "who's Emily," asked Senior. "Emily is a well-known "party lady" in the loop," replied the deputy. After Senior brought Junior back, we asked him how he wound up in Emily's bed and was the bed comfortable? he said he didn't remember how he crawled into Emily's bed, and yes, the bed was comfortable. - Johnny Jr., now treated like a rock star at the Tiger Bar, has a reputation with the Tiger's patrons as a "bit of a lad," as the Brits like to put it.

                                            The Tiger Bar