Captain Shikaboo
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2012
- Messages
- 130
I didn't want to hi-jack daselbee's thread about the loss of nstalgic icon. In a nutshell he reminded us of the things in our live's that were like a safe for memories of all sorts.
I had an old sevylor raft that my dad got for us when we were very young. My brothers and I used to stuff it in a book bag and ride our bikes to the local lakes and rivers and paddle our heads off exploring. I remember the head rushes from inflating it because the pump was broke. There were places we probably shouldn't have gone, and we did things that we should've never done on that raft. I have so many memories from that piece of rubber. I ended up taking it with me to college because my parents were gonna throw it out. I built a frame with a transom on it and put an outboard on it when I was 18 and used it to fish small lakes and float rivers. I took my dad out on it for a full day float on a local river (I thought he'd hate it). He sat up front with an oar in hand, and never said much. He would point at things and say "Would you look at that." We portaged the raft at dusk and I asked him what he thought, and he asked when we could do it again. He said it was like opening a window into what us kids did all those summers until the wee hours of the day. Guess I never thought of it that way. We never liked boating with my dad because he'd get so angry about one thing or another, no fish, a dent in the boat, etc. My brother's and I have had much bigger and more expensive boats of all sorts since that raft. We all had to get our own because we lived so far apart, and going out with our pop wasn't gonna happen too often. My oldest brother always had the biggest and most expensive boats because he was much more sucessful in his life than his younger siblings, but we would always meet somewhere in MI with our ships, big or small and have some fine times. The Three Captains my mother would say.
But the little raft was our favorite no matter what. Now that they are both gone, I cherrish it even more. I'm so glad I grabbed that darn thing before I left.
The orginal raft finally wore out, and as I got older and wiser I realized it wasn't a very safe vessel for what I was doing with it! A few years ago I bought the same exact model raft and refurbished the old frame and transom. I take it out on little lakes every now and then to remember.
I had an old sevylor raft that my dad got for us when we were very young. My brothers and I used to stuff it in a book bag and ride our bikes to the local lakes and rivers and paddle our heads off exploring. I remember the head rushes from inflating it because the pump was broke. There were places we probably shouldn't have gone, and we did things that we should've never done on that raft. I have so many memories from that piece of rubber. I ended up taking it with me to college because my parents were gonna throw it out. I built a frame with a transom on it and put an outboard on it when I was 18 and used it to fish small lakes and float rivers. I took my dad out on it for a full day float on a local river (I thought he'd hate it). He sat up front with an oar in hand, and never said much. He would point at things and say "Would you look at that." We portaged the raft at dusk and I asked him what he thought, and he asked when we could do it again. He said it was like opening a window into what us kids did all those summers until the wee hours of the day. Guess I never thought of it that way. We never liked boating with my dad because he'd get so angry about one thing or another, no fish, a dent in the boat, etc. My brother's and I have had much bigger and more expensive boats of all sorts since that raft. We all had to get our own because we lived so far apart, and going out with our pop wasn't gonna happen too often. My oldest brother always had the biggest and most expensive boats because he was much more sucessful in his life than his younger siblings, but we would always meet somewhere in MI with our ships, big or small and have some fine times. The Three Captains my mother would say.
But the little raft was our favorite no matter what. Now that they are both gone, I cherrish it even more. I'm so glad I grabbed that darn thing before I left.
The orginal raft finally wore out, and as I got older and wiser I realized it wasn't a very safe vessel for what I was doing with it! A few years ago I bought the same exact model raft and refurbished the old frame and transom. I take it out on little lakes every now and then to remember.
