Anyone who reads my column is invited to my birthday party and fish fry here in my home and office in the woods on Lightnin’ Ridge, about 10 or 12 miles north of Bolivar, MO. It will be held from 10:00 to 3:00 on Saturday, October 15, celebrating Gloria Jean’s birthday, and mine too. They are only a couple off days apart. It is a free event, but I only ask that you tell me you are coming so I will know how many fish to catch. There will be catfish, bass, crappie and walleye unless I don’t catch some of the four.
At 11:00 that morning, my naturalist daughter Christy and I will take folks on a hike along our nature trail, which winds through some huge timber full of birds and wildlife. Then we will eat at 12:30 or 1:00 p.m. I will supply all the food necessary and pay for it by selling some of the hunting and fishing gear I have used since I was a kid. Two of my friends will bring some of their stuff as well, and anyone else who comes can bring their own used outdoor stuff and put it on the table with a price. You can bring a dish of some kind if you want but you don’t have to. I could likely use a dessert or two. Last year I made a chocolate birthday cake but it ended up being just an inch or two high, so we just called it a fudge brownie. I will supply a map to those who don’t have that gps thing.
This week I have had both my magazines printed. You can receive both for the price of one just by calling me. They total more than one hundred pages of good reading. One is about the outdoors, and the other is about the history of the Ozarks. If you have never read what we call the Lightnin Ridge Magazines, you have missed something.
Because of printing prices, the combined magazines are $8 each. We have printed 90 issues of our magazines over 20 years. Some of the early ones are worth about $50 apiece now and a couple even more. Probably 70 or so of the back issues are still available and we sell a lot of them.
When I published my first book in the 1978, it was done by a company called, David McKay Publishing out of New York. It was a hard copy book entitled, “The Authentic American Johnboat” that sold for less than $10 dollars back then. They published two hundred thousand copies and several years later they called me and told me they had a little less than five thousand copies left which I could purchase for a dollar apiece. I had a family back then and I just didn’t have five grand. Not too long ago I saw that book, autographed, priced on the internet for $195! Then other copies were selling for $33. It was given a five-star rating by readers. See for yourself. I can’t believe it neither! If you have one of those, you might sell it on ebay for some good money. If it is one I autographed, who knows, it might be worth a dollar more!! If only I had just went to the bank and borrowed the five thousand! But that was just me… I was out hunting coons then, thinking that fur prices were going to go up.
I guess this is a good place to mention that the publication I am putting out in November, “the Truth About the Missouri Department of Conservation” cannot be mentioned in all newspapers. It is free to all who want it, all we are asking is that you pay $3.50 for postage. You will have to call me requesting it. My number is 417-777-5227. My address is Lightnin’Ridge, Box 22, Bolivar, MO 65613. My email is lightninridge47@gmail.com but something has happened to it where not all are received. If someone doesn’t answer your email, chances are we didn’t get it.
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