excellent article Dave, excellent memories, Jack was onme of my heros too, I have two of his books, Out of Town and Country Boy.
Things have changed, I'm, 51 going on 25, worjk out at the gym three times a week and still chase women (not that I catch many these days) still its all relative i suppose.
Angling I think is something which gets in the blood from an early age, for me I think, a significsant part of it is from childhood memories, calling at the local tackle shop on the way to school, 6 pences worth of maggots in a brown paper bag, kept sweating in my desk all day, until grotty maggie in the next desk reported me to the teacher
Bunking off school to poach one of the local mill lodges chasing gudeon and bullhead
bent pins and cane rods with elastic bands for eyes
even the smell of the locasl tackle shop, shiney new built cane rods, aniseed, linaseed nets, the magic of being sat on the canal bank behind the rubber factory while the rain came pooring down your neck, three kids sat on two baskets under a broken umbrella
you go through life, the usually marriages, divorces, kids, university, deaths, different jobs etc ect
the fishing however is always there! it changes but we still have it, we can still escape into it, we never loose it
Its for life!