An excerpt from a book I'm writing about my life. ( ye ye pretentious me ) lol
Then Alan, Gary and I, discovered crayfish, the rumour was that we could catch them and sell them to the local Chinese restaurant, who turned them into king prawn curry.
Ever inventive, we found that a barred tray stolen out of mothers grill pan could have a string at each corner and a line attached, then a slice of bacon tied to the tray and lowered into the dark brown water under the railway bridge, just past the gas works, slowly we drew up the tray to find a lobster like animal sitting on the bacon, who immediately shot backwards away from us as it came out of the water,
After many tries we found how to draw it up slowly till it was almost clear of the water, a last snatch brought it to the bank side with our first catch waving its lobster like claws at us, we gave the creature a stick to grasp and lifted it in to the bucket of water we had ready for our catch, success went to our heads, and we spent the whole day at this spot till we had about thirty crayfish in the bucket.
With the confidence of all twelve year olds, we took the catch to the restaurant back door in Mill street, and tried to sell them to the old Chinese man that answered.
Of course we were chased off, to take our catch home and store them in the old tin bath tub in the garden, where they spent the night clicking and banging on the sides of the bath.
Next day after school we found the bath empty and on its side and dad said “no more fishing for crayfish, the dam things kept me awake all night”, for weeks I terrified my three younger brothers with the thought that the freed crayfish were going to nibble them while they were asleep.
dumplings 
