Legend Of The Pogey Bait

Legend of the Pogey Bait
Open your ears my children and listen to the words that come out of my unbrushed and salivary mouth. Listen while I tell you a legend that has been passed down for centuries through the Bailey bloodline, but now you too can say that you are part Bailey, because you have heard this story. It all started with my dad’s dad whose name ironically had the same spelling as mine, but sounded out differently. People called him “Tom Ass” because he seemed to be really tough most of the time. Grandpa Tom always took my dad and his brothers to wild places in the middle of nowhere to perform exciting and yet insane tasks. My dad told me thousands of stories of horrendous tasks my Grandpa Tom made his kids do for some candy. Yes that is right the legend definitely involves candy. You see the word Pogey means kids and Bait is a lure or something that one is drawn to. So, my Grandpa Tom would make his kids do almost about anything for candy and obviously the kids were willing, because candy to a child is like nuts to a squirrel, they both will take as much as they can get . I asked my dad when the first time Grandpa Tom started telling them to do these crazy things. My dad said the very first time is when he first played monster with Grandpa Tom. I gave my dad that look that said really, monster the game in which all pain could ever be felt. Basically if you have never played monster you have never felt real pain however neither have you had real fun.
Monster is played as follows, one person is labeled monster and the rest are supposed to hide and runaway from the monster. If the monster captures you he tickles you senseless and you can hear the victims screams from across the Sahara Desert. Once you have been captured you become a monster. The game ends when there is only one person left that is not a monster. And the prize for winning is that you are tickled and tackled by everyone. My dad said when Grandpa Tom first played this game with him it had been torture, but they could always looked forward to getting some candy after every game. However, once my dad got to big for monster Grandpa Tom decided to make the kids do insane things to earn their candy.
“NO please I don’t want to” shrieked my dad in his little ten year old voice.
“Come on son if you don’t jump everyone else will get candy except for you” announced Grandpa Tom as if my dad would die if he didn’t get candy.
“Dad, this cliff is at least 50 feet high and there is a pile of rocks that I have to jump over to get into the water.” My dad looked down and his face changed from the whiny explaining face to the HOLY CRAP face. When my Grandpa Tom told me the story he said he didn’t know what my dad was scared of more, dying or not getting candy. In the end for my dad it was not getting candy, so he jumped off the cliff and plunged feet first into the icy cold water
Crazy things like jumping off cliffs to get a fifty cent candy bar are things that are done by all human beings with the last name Bailey. The legend of the pogey bait isn’t just a way to get candy, but it is also a way to get the whole family together and it helps us to work together. An example of this is the yearly winter ice hike. Every winter we go out to some random woods and we follow one of the rivers and hike on the river, for candy obviously. One day in particular we were at the last stretch of ice to get to land. It was a warm day for an ice hike I had thought and told my dad at the beginning, but now that we were almost to the end of the ice hike I thought that I had been wrong. I figured out that day that I should trust myself more, because when we got to that last stretch of ice and I took my first giant step onto that ice as if I were Neil Armstrong and I was taking the first step onto the moon I heard a crackling and breaking of ice.
“There she goes” my dad screamed at the top of his lungs as if everyone wanted to take a cold bath with ice cubes. My little brother Peter still being a toddler didn’t know how to swim and everyone else was running for shore, but they didn’t make it in time. All the ice that was supporting us had broken and we were now all in a icy bath.
“Where is Peter” my dad asked frantically.
“I’ve got him dad and he is not even wet.” My sister Holly said with my little brother over her head, like that Greek god that held the world over his head. We used team work and passed him from person to person until somebody was able to carry him up to shore.
“Grab the stick” my brother Joe yelled while he thrusted the enormous branch at me, while we all tried climbing the slippery bank. I don’t think I have ever been as cold as I was that fateful day, but like what I have said before as long as kids have candy everything is alright.
This used to be a family tradition, but now that a lot of my siblings have moved out and have gotten jobs we as a family cant seem to get together to do something crazy and go Pogey Baiting. The very last time I remember in participating in the activity of pogey baiting was one hot summer day in the Milwaukee suburbs. My dad was always trying to help the community and help us live respectably. One thing my dad hated more than anything was seeing trash not in a garbage can. My dad took us skipping in a happy frolic around the neighborhood to gather as many hands as we could find that wanted to pick up trash and get candy. We were not properly equipped, but my dad didn’t care how we put the trash in the garbage can as long as we did it.
“Each person present at this time must go and gather twenty different pieces of trash and must meet me at the outside of the candy store by three thirty with their twenty pieces of trash. “ My dad commanded as if it were a life and death situation and we were soldiers that couldn’t eat until we did something to please our commander. Well the hunt was on, kids went all over the neighborhood with their garbage bags in hand and they were picking up dog poop on the sidewalk and shoving that sticky piece of gum into that huge bag of theirs. They came by the dozens to the candy store and my dad inspected each ones garbage bag. Some got away with having nineteen pieces of trash and laughed like Hyena’s. My dad didn’t care though, he cared about teaching kids on how to take care of what they are given and how to use it properly. My dad taught me invaluable lessons throughout each one of our pogey baiting trips.
Pogey baiting used to be a Bailey tradition, but now it is a legend that is told around the fireplace during holidays. I plan on passing on the legend and continuing the tradition with kids of my own. I plan on teaching them invaluable lessons through crazy adventures. I just hope that I don’t run out of ideas and tasks for them to perform for the simplest of things. That thing that one is willing to die for and sacrifice time, energy, and warmth for is candy. Candy is one of the things most precious to many people, but few realize how precious it truly is. The candy in your Easter egg, stocking, heart shaped box, and birthday bag, all of these events bring family together and connect us, and the very first person to think of using candy to bring his family together every Saturday was Grandpa Tom, and though it might be seen as legend now I will always remember pogey baiting and will pass on the legend and continue the tradition.