I purchased a new fiberglass canoe from a friend at work. At the time I lived in the trailer court in Deerwood. I purchased it for $50 and I thought I may have snookered him a little? $50 dollars!

I hauled it home on my Ford, got a paddle from my dad, and I got a friend of mine to go to the boat landing in the trailer court – his name was Harvey. I started out sitting on the seat at the stern and I had a 50’ rope hooked to the bow and Harvey was holding the rope for me. I pushed myself out a few feet, but right away I felt a little wobbly. I decided to get on my knees, you know a little lower center of gravity? Well that happened to be a little better but you had to be perfectly still and in very slow motion when paddling. 

I managed to get out a little farther and with a few light waves I was rocking violently again, which caused Harvey to laugh! It didn’t take me long and I was lying face down, stretched out trying to stop the rocking!

Harvey was laughing so hard he almost wet his pants, and he dropped the rope!!!

I was hollering at him, “Pull me in!!!” 

But he said, “I think you can paddle yourself in from there?”

Finally, he got the rope and saved me.

He kept telling me I would have to come up with a paddle that could be used while laying down??? 

Well, I got a hold of the fellow that sold it to me and told him of my maiden voyage.

He was drinking a beer and spit it out, then there was uncontrollable laughter!  He explained that they were going to try and manufacture these and had made the molds for them, but the bottoms were round, and they were tippy! 

It wasn’t long and someone saw it on my car, and I traded it for a little boat. A couple weeks later that person wanted his boat back!

But I said, “A deal is a deal!”

He was going to take his son out duck hunting, but they never left the shore! His kid was screaming and crying and scared to death!

I only laughed a little bit!