Fish Tales: Stickleback, Redfish and Growing Up Well Fed BY MICHELE D. BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: MICHELE D. BAKER FAMILY PHOTOS
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ummer is coming, and with it, the celebration of fathers everywhere. I lost my dad, Dr. John Baker, a year ago June, and this will be my first Father’s Day without him. As I remember his life, I think about how much of it revolved around fish: as the focus of his career, as the object of his muchloved hobby and as a source of nourishment for his growing family. FRESH OFF THE FARM My dad was an All-American farm kid. Born in 1947 in Illinois corn country, he grew up with homegrown vegetables, eggs from his grandmother’s hens and fresh meat from relatives nearby, back when food was slow and “organic” was assumed. Life was slower then; there was time to play board games and corn cob baseball after school, and families ate together at the dinner table every evening. Since his father was out of the picture and there were four children to feed, my dad—the eldest child—helped his mother by running a paper route on his bike, and as a teen, John and his brothers would fish for supper in nearby Kilbuck Creek using bamboo poles instead of rods. HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS Just like in the movies, my parents met in middle school and fell in love. They were a couple throughout high school, except when my father briefly broke up with my mom to date another girl. During that time, the annual school play featured my dad as a scheming Snidely Whiplash and my mom as the French maid, and the script called for the villain to get a pie in the face (an aluminum pan with whipped cream). But
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my grandmother was mad at John for dumping her little girl, so instead she substituted a deep-dish banana cream pie with extra-thick meringue for the prop pie. (Ker-splat!) Two years later, my parents were back together, got married after college, and Dad went to work as a cook at the Hillside Restaurant in DeKalb. By his own admission, he made “delicious” mashed potatoes and learned to work the grill like a pro. John’s Christmas present in 1969 was the announcement
John Baker, sitting next to his baby brother and playing board games (circa 1953).
