As kids, one of the things we always looked forward to was going to the beach, swimming, and playing in the sand. As farmers, we didn’t take a whole lot of time in the summer to do this,  even though we are only about 5 miles from the lake. Most of the time, Tim and I would “mess around” around the many farm ponds our neighbors had, or the various creeks in our area. When we did get to the beach, it was a real thrill and treat, indeed! When we were around 10 or 11, one of our family friend’s sons had a little boat his father made for him. It was painted black and made out of pine and looked just like a trough that concrete is hand mixed in. We used to go with him in it as we floated down “Old Woman Creek.” Well, we just HAD to have one too! Our father finally built us one after endless eons of “bugging” him. Ours was just like the other one, only we painted ours white because that’s the only color of paint we could find sitting around the farm. Soon after, we found a little red paint and had just enough to paint the seats red (at least on the top side if I recall correctly).  We christened it “THE McGAFFER,” after one of the phrases our father always used, i.e. “That’s the McGaffer.” We’d get our father or Uncle Ned to haul it to various ponds for us and we would fish and/or float around seemingly for hours on the placid pond waters. As I recall, we used a piece of old lumber for an oar.  It was really hard to paddle through the water since both the bow and stern were flat and angled down at a 45-degree angle just like a barge. Our anchor was an old tall and round cast iron weight with a hole at the top and the anchor line was some small hemp rope we found laying around. It was a perfect anchor! I wished I still had it today because we later found out it was a weight used by milkmen in the “horse and wagon days” that was put on the ground and attached to a horse with a rope to keep the horse from wandering off while the milkman was delivering the milk to the porches. Even though it would probably be worth a good sum of money today, I would never sell it because of the “nostalgia.” Unfortunately, it’s probably deep in the mud at the bottom of Crawley’s , Wlodarsky’s, Gammie’s, or Burnham’s pond, or Lake Erie! One summer (in 1960), we had the opportunity to rent a cottage at Oberlin Beach from  Ray Brumby (who passed away a few years ago). They hauled “THE McGAFFER” to the beach for us and we had the time of our lives! It really felt neat to take our little “boat” on Lake Erie with really neat waves and everything! It was like a roller coaster ride for us! Roger W. (whose son John had the original boat ours was patterned after) brought his REAL boat “THE BRAT” to the beach and we all had swell boat rides! When the “grownups” had their fill of water-skiing, Roger let us take the ski rope and we took turns holding it while being towed in our little boat! That was really neat as he engaged “THE BRAT” to full throttle! It’s a wonder the “caulking” didn’t fly out of the seams! I guess the pine had swelled enough from previous uses to really make it water tight (or “water tight integrity” as they taught us in the Navy).  We had a whole lot of fun and “adventures” with our little “mortar mixer trough boat.” Like all kids, we eventually lost interest in “boating” and  “THE McGAFFER” was unceremoniously left in the weeds to fade and slowly rot as the years went by! The only pictures I can find of that summer 1-week cottage experience is an old black and white of our parents sitting on Oberlin Beach (I will post it here if I can find it). I sure wished we had taken at least 1 picture of “THE McGAFFER”! Alas, as the Pennsylvania Dutch say, “Too soon old and too late smart”!