Lorraine's Lines

Lorraine “LuLu “ 2010

People often say that if they could turn back the hands of time and change their past they would do it in a second. I for one wouldn’t change a thing from my childhood and being part of a fishing family. I was the youngest of the five Kessinger children, so my memories of the Capt Jack VI and the Starsteam are fuzzy. My memories of the older boats were going down to the dock with mom to see dad when the boat came in. Dad’s mates and regulars gave me the nick name’s of “Princess take-a-leak-a” when I was born then to “little lulu”,“Lula” and “D-wayne”. My interest in fishing began with my first blue fishing trip on the NEW Starstream II. I think I was nine years old when I got hooked on fishing. Unlike my older sister I was able to gradually get my “sea legs” and learned how to swallow Dramamine without gagging. As I got a little older I got braver and started making some trips when the weather was a little colder. I got hooked on bottom fishing and loved catching porgies and sea bass. I think that was about the time I earned the nickname Berkfy, from my lovely look of bucked teeth and large rimmed glasses (translation: Berkfy comes from the word perch as it was pronounced by my neighbor Udd who had a speech problem). Yes I did look like a perch! (Please see photos on website). I was also mistaken many times as Petie’s little brother. Talk about a rough early childhood, agh!! Thank God I eventually grew out of that awkward phase.

Over the years and spending time with Dad and getting my sea legs I finally jumped on the bandwagon and became another Kessinger child who would make a teenage career of working on the boats in the summer. While all my friends were hanging at the beach or going to summer camp, I chose the lavish lifestyle of smelling like fish, calloused hands and a great tan. I started as galley girl at age 13, renting rods and selling tackle, coffee, beer and soda. The thing I hated most about the job was hearing “Lorraine” over the loud speaker which meant Dad wanted something up on the bridge. I finally started getting smart and would automatically bring up the coffee so I wouldn’t have to make two trips. Being Galley girl I would also get to show off my fishing skills and teach people how to catch a bluefish. I loved to hear people say “Who’s that GIRL catching all the fish”. It was tough being a girl in a predominant man’s world of fishing . . . NOT!

The best part of being galley girl was that I had my sidekick to keep me company. My cousin Christina, who shared galley duty with me. We had a lot of laughs with our brother’s Peter and Anthony. Although they picked on us a lot and teased us, they equally made us laugh our A$#@s off. We also had a lot of fun and learned a lot about people with all the customers we met from all walks of life. Talk about and education! I never thought working on a fishing boat would prepare me for my career as an Emergency Room nurse practitioner. The drunks, the crazy, the sea sick and of course helping dad when someone was bit by a bluefish or got a fishhook in their skin almost anywhere on the body you could imagine. As I reached my mid teens and proved how tough and strong I was, I earned the position of mate. I was a unique entity in the fishing industry. There were very few female’s who had the title of mate. I would do like the boys, get up early, rent poles and making sure they were all properly functioning and rigged. Then the day began; untangling lines, fixing reels, selling bags, selling jigs, rerigging poles, cleaning up puke, cleaning the boat, toilet duty (men have really bad aim) scrubbing the boat on the way home so the guys could cut fish and then sweeping, mopping and cleaning the cabin to get ready for the night trip. Sounds like being a house wife! After all that, I still loved the job!

The best part of the job was the people I worked closest with. My Dad, my brother Pete, Danny Piskopus, Cousin Anthony and Christina, Randy, Capt Howie. Mark Pagnozzi and of course my all time favorite, Kenny Werle. Some of my best laughs were listening to Kenny yell “get the drail off” or “what do you got on that thing clothes line” and my all time favorite “two fifty”. The antics of Peter and Anthony made the job a little more interesting. Today, I love sitting down with Peter, Anthony and Christina and talking about the fishing days and laughing till we cry about all the funny stories. My favorite story of course is “a-hole Freddy” and his water bucket. But there are too many other stories to tell and to many names to name. I guess Stevie will have to write the book next. The Starstream was a great family to be part of. I would never change any of it.

The final chapter to this story is that I caught my biggest fish on that boat, Tommy “Ernie” Rizzo. I remember my dad saying, “your not gonna start dating that Rizzo kid are you?” Boy am I glad I did. We will be married 20 years this year. We have 2 beautiful children 16 year old Cailyn and 14 year old Tommy. Like myself, Tom “Ernie” has many wonderful memories of the Starstream . He loved working with the night crew and Capt Chris Specht and Capt Bob Nagy. He also agrees it was one of the greatest experiences. Although I don’t fish much anymore, I still love the sea and the salt air. Tom and I still spend some time on the calm water’s of the Gulf of Mexico aboard our boat “Tommy Tuna”. I don’t think I could ever live away from the water. And like my sister said, I wish my kids could have experienced what it was like to be on the Starstream II. I think anyone who had ever worked or fished on the Starstream fleet will tell you that it was the greatest voyage they had ever been on. I am so proud to have been a part of this incredible journey.

Thank you Steve for putting this wonderful website together and the tribute to “The Legend” Capt Richie (our dad) and all those who were part of the Starstream legacy

Lorraine Kessinger Rizzo ARNP and Tom “Ernie” Rizzo

Cape Coral, Florida

January 21, 2011

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