This is it, folks–the last day of our Memory Lane Contest. If you’ve got a memory you’d like to share, post it here.
When I read Huckleberry Finn , ages and ages ago, I, too, wanted to travel down the river on a raft. And as luck would have it, all the materials were ready to hand: an informal dump site, discarded wooden pallets, old tires–and a stream.
On a blisteringly hot summer day, my friends and I assembled a raft, complete with an old tire at each corner to help float it. Hard work in all that heat! Took us almost all day. But we kept at it till we had a raft. And then we launched it.
Straight to the bottom. No waiting, glub-glub-glub–adios, raft. The old tires most emphatically did NOT float, they might as well have been four cinderblocks… *Sigh* Live and learn…
And now it’s time for your memories, folks. The winner gets a prize–although the memories themselves are a kind of prize, aren’t they?
I used to want to try rafting, myself, but fortunately, there weren’t any suitable sites nearby, so I never had the opportunity. I’m certain that my efforts would not have come to a positive end. 🙂
That stream we had was only some six inches wider than our raft.
That’s the safest way to go. I wanted to build a raft when I was a kid, but I seriously doubt that my best efforts would have been any less prone to sink than the raft you describe building.
In retrospect, it was for the best that I never gotten anywhere with my raft idea. Chances are very good that I would have put myself in danger.
This is certainly one of the most special memories for me. I remember once that someone I admire a lot gave me one of his books. I was looking forward to the day the doorbell rang and I could hold this book in my hands. But I wasn’t just happy for the book. When this book arrived and I opened it, I saw a signature and something written for me! You made this special gift for me, Mr. Duigon, and gave me a memory that I will never forget. The first time I saw Bell Mountain in a bookstore, it never crossed my mind that that book would be much more than a book for me. You really made a girl happy and became like family to her, even though you are so far away.
That’s very sweet, Katheleen–warms my heart.
Our family went inner-tubing in the Wisconsin Crystal River. Using large truck inner-tubes, there were rapids which were not life-ending, if you went over that section of river. It was best to go in the spring, for the water was deepest that time of year.
One spring day, due to the water being cold, my mother’s wedding ring slipped off her finger, of course, they never found it. But a few months later, with a new ring, their friends set up a mock wedding ceremony, and the couple had to take their vows, sitting in an inner-tube, with each leg in a bucket of water, symbolizing the loss of the ring.
That’s a great story.