This is an updated version of an incident I wrote about several years ago, for folks like my daughter Lara Mason. She and I were sitting in Vertis' bedroom talking when a big roach crawled up the outside screen door. We both commented about its size, which was about two inches.

After a few "yucks" and "glad it on the outside" comments, I said, "Best fish bait." And Lara said, "Nobody would use roaches as fish bait!"

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, when environmental regulations were few and far between, the city of El Dorado and Union County operated a garbage dump off what is now Industrial Road. It has long since been eliminated, but in the early '50s it was active.

I was about 15; my best friend Buddy Henley of Henley Feed (now deceased) was 13, and hunting and fishing was our prime pastime. I was driving an old used truck my dad bought when Buddy and I happened to drive by the city dump. It was teeming with rats and roaches.

"Hey, Buddy," I said, "Let's come back tonight with our headlights and .22s and........

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