My Dad, Clark, always had a darkhouse on Cedar Lake, in the winter time. Now, for those of you who do not know what a darkhouse is, I will explain. It is a tar paper shanty with a hole in the floor that is lined up with a hole that you have cut in the ice, through which you catch the fish, or at that time, speared them, because spearing was then legal.
The thing that I am going to tell you about, happened when I was about seven or eight years old and it was the cause of a condition that has induced more comment about me that any other one thing; my big nose.

Dad and I had gone down to the lake to catch some fish, and after we had gotten into the darkhouse, Dad discovered that there was a gap in one of the seams of the tar paper that was letting in some light. Now, in order to make these dark houses effective you must have complete darkness inside. Then you can see all that is going on down in the water

Dad had a tobacco tin of nails, screws etc. that he had left on one of the 2×4’s, or whatever, in the top of the shanty. He went outside with some of the nails and a hammer to make the repair. Each time that he would strike a blow with the hammer, those nails in the can would rattle, and just as I looked up to see what was causing the noise, that can fell off and the sharp edge struck me right on the bridge of my nose. The really serious thing was that the can bounced off my nose and fell right into the hole in the ice. Perhaps I would have had a hump in my nose regardless, but that gave me something to blame it onto.