Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his handWe will never forget that 9/11 tragedy...
Don't ask any questions and don't try to understand
Open up your mind and then open up your heart
And you will see that you and me aren't very far apart
'Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
Violence is spread worldwide and there are families on the street
And we sell drugs to children now oh why can't we just see
That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today
Money is our incentive now so that makes it okay
But I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I've been seeing Lisa now for a little over a year
She said she's never been so happy but Lisa lives in fear
That one day daddy's gonna find out she's in love
With a nigger from the streets
Oh how he would lose it then but she's still here with me
'Cause she believes that love will see it through
And one day he'll understand
And he'll see me as a person not just a black man
'Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe I believe I believe I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way
Please love find the way
Please love find the way...
-Blessid Union of Souls, I Believe
The Bedlam on Baltic Avenue would like to have another moment of silence for the passing of a local fishing hero. Rest in peace, Jed Walsh.
`Little fishies in the brook, come and bite my little hook'
Legendary fisherman and friend, dead at 98
By Bob Keisser, Staff writer
Inside SOCAL
Article Launched:09/10/2007 11:03:14 PM PDT
Jed Welsh's daughter Susie once advised her dad to write a book about his fish tales, but the reality is the well-known fisherman and Press-Telegram outdoors columnist had enough fish stories to fill a library, much less a book.
Welsh died Sunday morning at the age of 98 from pneumonia but his persona will live on throughout Long Beach and California because of his tremendous influence on the sport.
Welsh learned his fishing and outdoor skills from his father Joe and happily and successfully merged his love for it into a career as a manufacturer of tackle, fishing guide, promoter, salesman and writer. He wrote freelance articles for fishing magazines in the '40s and became a regular outdoors columnist for the Long Beach Independent before moving to the Press-Telegram in the early '50s.
To this day, you can walk into almost any bait shop and find a package of Jed Welsh lures near the counter. He ran the business with his wife Helen until his mid-60s, when he sold it and the name to a private company.
"My dad helped build part of Catalina Island. He lived with Indians. He could take us anywhere in the Sierras and find a stream so remote that he'd joke not even the Indians knew where it was," said his daughter Susie Nolen.
"My brother and I would work at his shop along with some of our friends. We'd take these vacations into the mountains each summer, and find all kind of crazy fishing activities to do other times of the year, like the Crawdad Stomp, clam digging, driftwood casting, grunion hunting.
"I would go with dad on his selling trips to the Sierras each summer, to June Lake, all the way up to Reno and back," said his son Jed. "We'd fish, and then sell, then fish to noon, and then sell, then fish the rest of the day. It was a great way for a young kid to spend his summer."
His son said his father's love and aptitude for the sport came naturally, and the stories inevitably were successful and larger than life.
"We once took our 14-footer out to Catalina looking for Marlin, and a hammerhead shark came by when it got a whiff of the bait," he said. "Here we were in a 14-foot boat being followed by a 16-foot shark. Dad tried a series of aft turns to elude him but the shark wouldn't leave, so we rolled up the bait. The shark wasn't happy, I guess, because he bit one of the props before leaving."
Welsh said his dad caught 94 marlin in his life and he always recalled the one time it took him and a friend three hours to bring one in off Avalon. By the time they decked him, their boat was out of gas and drifting in the Pacific. They spent the night watching the Navy hold some firing exercises over Catalina.
"I'd say that probably everyone who works at a landing up and down the coast knows dad and have their own stories to tell," his son said.
Jed was born in January of 1909 and attended Pasadena High and USC, where he was a world-class hurdler and the Trojans' 1932 team captain. He left school prematurely, according to his long time friend and local sports celebrity George Van Zant, for financial reasons and launched his successful manufacturing career.
"Jed was influenced greatly by his father Joe, who established the Welsh name in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Catalina Island and helped build part of the island," Van Zant wrote in a letter to the Press-Telegram.
"Jed became a fishing guide in the Sierras and offered a free trip to any customer that didn't catch a limit of trout. He charged five dollars and never failed to get his customers their 15 fish limit."
"My granddad built a house in Catalina and dad worked the rock quarry there when they were blasting rocks to build the breakwater," Jed Welsh said. "Dad was sent to Catalina in his teens after doctors detected a heart murmur and gave him six months to live. Four years later, he was training for the Olympic Games and competing at USC. He outlived all of those doctors."
"Jed fished and caught almost every sport fish on the planet," wrote Van Zant. "He once held the world record for roosterfish and currently holds the record for a yellowfin croaker. (He befriended) Ernest Hemingway and worked as a deckhand for Zane Gray at Catalina Island.
"He'll be missed for his salesman smile and down to earth, homespun writing. We'll miss his colorful sayings, like `Bite, you cowards,' and `Little fishies in the brook, come and bite my little hook."'
"Dad never realized it was time to stop fishing," his son said, "He went out to Alamitos Bay with George back in August. I think he'd have been dead a long time ago if he had ever stopped."
Welsh's wife of 68 years, Helen, survives him along with Jed and Susie, two grandchildren, Dylan and Lucas, three great-grandkids, and thousands of friends who shared his love of fishing.
Services are pending and will be published in the Press-Telegram when the family announces it plans.
George Van Zant contributed to this story.