Shadow Bear and all, I also remember the first boat I was ever in. I was 3 yrs. old. It was a wooden flatbottom fishing boat. The outside of the boat was a dark mossy green color from being in the lake for so many years. When I saw my first v-shaped aluminum bass boat I asked what kept the wooden boat from sinking (sure, wood 'floats')...but the simple statement was that when the boat was built and put in the water, the wood soaked up the water and swelled the pieces together, then the boat was brought back out of the water to dry. Wooden plugs were used to hold the wood together, not nails. After that, the boat floated because the wood swelled tight together and there were no leaks.....until many years later the wood would start to rot from being in the water for so many years. But of course each winter, all the boats were pulled out of the water so they would have 'one more season' of use (each summer). Oars were used of course, no one ever used any kind of boat motors then. The first time I saw a boat motor was on an aluminum boat. Motors were used a good thirty years before I was born but they were not used in the area I lived here in the Ozarks. Our people lived back in the woods and the quieter, the better. We mostly fished at night and the boat would glide along the water and hardly make a sound. My father and uncle/cousins would set trot lines during the day and then run them at night. Sometimes I would go with them and I loved the excitement of hearing the bullfrogs, the crickets and hearing the splash of a fish jumping up in the water in the dark. At that time I remember the big flathead catfish and carp they would take off the trot line seemed huge to me, like whales.:) Some of the fish weighed 40 lbs and were big enough to swallow me. For that reason I would never swim in the lake only the creek where I could see the bottom. I remember when I first learned how to swim. I kept sinking. I could not stay on top, so I first learned how to swim underwater. At the big creek was a place everyone knew was called "the rock". You could dive off of it into the creek. The water was deep there. That is where I learned to swim, underwater. Since I swam underwater all the time I was used to having my eyes open so I could see where I was going. The water was always crystal clear "pre-pollution" days. If you happened to swallow the water, it wouldn't kill you. When I swam under "the rock" I found a big hole in the rock so swam into it and it opened up into a small 'cave' which had a big air pocket in it. I could stay there as long as I wanted and then swim back out. I carved my initials in it and the date of 1957. It took me all summer to do that. The rock is still there, it doesn't look so big anymore, and I bet the gravel has washed the hold closed with all the flooding through the years. Many good memories at the rock. It was a good time in my childhood. Brin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- Original Message ----- From: "shadowbear270" <shadowbear270@webtv.net> To: <CHEROKEE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 6:50 PM Subject: [Cherokee Circle] Quest >I have been talking now I have to see just what I can talk about==I > think I know so==Would you believe I can remember the first time I was > every on a row boat ==going fishing==Guess what? I didn't like it==of > course I talked about it All the time we were fishing==I was never asked > to go with them again=I still don't like fishing from a boat==I could > tell about a gasoline lantern > maybe later==just thinking about it still make me not like them==could > be > they are differant now==I can tell you if you get any that gasoline on > you it made you stink bad all day > > SHADOW BEAR >