I remember heading out to Dumont Lake on Friday evenings (a lot of times with Jim and Corla Kraker and their family). I have such good memories of tubing, skiing, knee-boarding, etc. Although, thinking back, I'm not so sure how the memories are so good.
It would seem that our weekly trip would often start out with a short pit stop along the side of the road as we would wait for the Jeep to cool down. I remember packing gallons of water along for, I believe, the purpose of cooling the Jeep.
I remember many times the boat not starting....
....who forgot the ski ropes.....
.....why is the plug not in the boat?.......
I also remember dad's main goal of pulling us on the tubes was to see if he could get us to fall off (or kill us maybe). Seriously?!?! I would have thought he would have at least been gentle on his only daughter, but nope. I remember a time, being in the boat with him, that he was so frustrated that Bryan and Mike Becksvoort had figured out a way to balance so well on the tube that he could not get them off. He said, "Watch this!" as he proceeded to pull them through a bunch of reeds. I could hear the reeds whipping their bare backs from in the boat. Dad even cringed and I think actually regretted that move.
Most of all though, I remember just being in awe of dad as he would slalom ski. He would hop start from about knee deep in the water, he would yell "Hit It", then he would disappear under the water with a big wake surrounding him for what seemed like forever and suddenly he would emerge. I remember he could slalom so well. One time he told me that he could lay so low that his thumb would hit the water. I don't know if that was true or not, but I certainly remember the massive shield of water that he would disappear behind as he skied around the lake. I would just watch in awe and amazement, so proud that he was my dad.........and then of course...the infamous soaking! If you were driving the boat, you knew that you HAD BETTER drop him off close enough to saturate someone with that shield of water. I always enjoyed watching to see who his victim would be!
I never quite understood it...but dad sure did love that old boat (even though he also hated it), haha!
Of course, if dad didn't get up when skiing, it was definitely the driver's fault. Once I was old enough to drive, I remember being so nervous to pull him. When he said, "hit it", you better not hesitate!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone has a picture of dad skiing, please add it!
I think we all learned how to do a lot of things from Dad including how to hate the boat. The week Dad died Andrew, Bryan and I took the boat out fishing to help relieve some of three stress of the week. We ended up stranded a few miles out on Lake Michigan and had to be towed in.
ReplyDeleteDon't look now but there's a boat following us.
ReplyDeleteHahaha...totally forgot about that!
DeleteYa, I was going to write that one. He always said that.
DeleteIt took a lot of abuse before I finally refused to drive the boat when Rick was skiing. Funny now but it was never his fault if he didn't get up.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time Jer was going to pull dad behind our boat. I was in the passenger seat belting out directions to Jer....like when he says "hit it", don't pause; if you have to pick him up, don't drag him...don't miss him, etc. Jer just looked at me and said, "I know how to do this." All I could think was, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.
ReplyDelete