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2002-05-23 - 12:14 p.m.

Get in, sit down, shut up, hold on! We're goin for a ride!

My new cruiser is here and I'm like a kid in a candy store. New toys give me that giddy feeling, especially new water toys. I'll retire Eternal Youth, the old ship, and hopefully set sail on the new toy--what about Old Fool (or Damn Fool) as a name for her?--this weekend. Let the summer begin, I have great plans for playing with my new toy.

Even as a kid a boat was my favorite toy. Dad built our first boat, a little wooden runabout we called DoodleBug because of the white "cooty bug" he painted on the bow. We--I was his faithful assistant boat builder--spent many winter weekends crafting the boat, then enjoyed putting around the lake, maybe fishing for crappie or riding the surfboard behind the boat or maybe not doing much of anything, on summer weekends. Occasionally we'd pack a picnic supper and go to the lake on weeknights. On those nights I would bounce and bang around the house until Mom got sick and tired of me and sent me outside to sit in the boat and wait on Dad to get home from work.

I had my very own little DoodleBug Dad built for me. It was an exact replica of his boat, complete with a little battery-operated Evinrude motor. When we’d go to the lake I’d take my little boat, Dad would tie a string on it so I wouldn’t lose it, and I’d play for hours running the boat through the water. A couple of times I tried running the boat in the bathtub, but Mom heard the little propeller beating on the tub floor, and the boat banging into the sides of the tub and put her foot down on boating in the bathtub.

I’m sure she’d rather I’d played with the dolls she gave me for birthday and Christmas gifts, but I didn’t have time for sissy dolls. A few years ago Mom pulled four dolls from a storage trunk, all were still in their original packaging and had never been opened. I asked her why, if I didn’t open the first doll, she gave me three more! She laughed and said she was always hopeful I might turn into a sweet little girl. That was a bust, wasn’t it!

Anyway, while the dolls collected dust and took up space in storage containers, I played with boats. When I was 16, part of learning to drive was also learning to pull and back a boat trailer. When I turned 17 Dad turned the family boat over to me. In my early 20s I traded that one for a new one, and I’ve been buying boats and enjoying time on the water through all those years.

And now I'm anxiously waiting on good weather so I can try out the latest new toy! Wonder if we'll get lucky and get some sun and warm air this weekend?

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