There was always a boat on the Neuse River. The first one I knew was my Grandfather’s boat. I remember when he built it down on the beach. I got into the paint pots, and after being cleaned with turpentine my mother rubbed my hands with mayonnaise to replenish the moisture. It was a rowboat of a heavy work boat design. It was big and wide with lots of seating. We used it for crabbing on the hottest days ever.
Then there was the SunFish, a sailboat. My brother and I spent many a day in that boat out on the wide portions of the Neuse. The only thing that would bring us in was when we saw our Mother waving a towel for us to come in to dinner. If we were in good position for the wind we could cover those two miles in 15 minutes. And then we would sit down to a home cooked meal with vegetables from our garden.
Years later my daughter and I would take the SunFish out far into the river. My son would row out, and in the middle of that old stream we would jump in and swim.
The next boat is the one pictured. My father bought it when he was deployed to Norway for a NATO exercise. He bought it in Norway. It was large row boat, but light for its size. It had two sets of oar locks for rowers fore and aft. We could have taken this boat out on the ocean. The waves on the Neuse can be pretty big, and sometimes my father and I had to work hard at our oars to bring the boat safely in. Other times, I would row across the river with our dog as my passenger. We would cross the river and explore the open pine forests on the far side. We spent hours in those woods.
This would be our last boat.
But my Uncle George next door across the gully had an aluminum row boat. He had it for a long time. He would sometimes put a small Evinrude on the back and tow Elizabeth and me on our inflatable (they were canvas then) raft. We got mouths-full of gasoline, exhaust smoke, and oily water as that engine charged along. It was great fun. And later, in that boat, I would teach my son and daughter to row. The oars we used had come to that boat from my Grandfather’s rowboat modeled on flat-bottom Core Sound boats. I wonder where those oars are now?
We finally had to pull the old Norwegian boat out of the water. We had patched and caulked it as best we could, but over several decades the wood had broken down. We kept it on blocks for a couple of years and would talk about trying to get it back in the water.
But it was not to be.
We burned it on the beach. It seemed appropriate. I still have a couple of the lead rivets from its hull.
All those days out rowing in sun and in rain and in gales, they were tremendous days. I still will go down to a nearby lake and rent a boat for a morning’s rowing. Its always terrific, especially in the Fall when the trees along the bank are covered in red and gold. On a cold morning even when the lake is calm no one else will be out. I have the world to myself. And I give an extra pull on the oars and feel the boat surge through the water.