Huck Finn

Canoes are awful. I have fond memories of driving to and from fishing trips, but the actual fishing trips themselves...not so much. Out on the water I remember periods of blissful calm that were punctuated by frenzied moments of pure terror whenever we had the grave misfortune to catch a fish.

Dad, all six feet, two inches, and 220 pounds of him, would leap quite literally into action running and jumping up and down the length of our canoe, to grab the net and get the fish into the boat. He did all this while yelling, "Don't move! Don't move! You'll tip the boat".

I was, of course, petrified with fright, and clutched the gunwales of our little craft in abject horror at the thought of of being the one responsible for sinking our little ship. In hindsight, the only person who was going to drown us was the maniac I referred affectionately to as "Dad".

Rafts, and not canoes, as far as I was concerned at the time, were the only way to travel on a lake or river. Grandma Guppy had given me a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a gift, and I loved the adventures that Huck and Jim had on the mighty Mississippi. Gliding up and down the river using a pole sounded like heaven.

I finally got a chance to find out for myself what riding a raft would have been like. My sweetie pie and I went white water rafting in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania this afternoon. Our raft was made of rigid rubber, and we used paddles, but sustantively, it couldn't have been all that different from what Huck and Jim experienced: fast,bumpy, occasionally scary, and fun.

Fun for me, but I'm typing this at a bed and breakfast after a nice hot meal. Not so fun for Huck and Jim, travelling on that raft for days. I'm surprised they didn't commit suicide early in the novel - life on the raft would have been bumpy, damp, and miserable.

So a raft wouldn't have been quite the pimped out ride my eight year old imagination thought it would be. I'm just glad I've never had to paddle a canoe in my life. My Dad might have been a man of limited means, but he was also one of the most clever men I have ever known (or will know). Our canoe was sixteen feet long, made out of aluminum, and manufactured by Grumann. Dad was able to mount an outboard motor on the back of our craft.

Huck and Jim would have eaten our wake if we ever zipped by them on the Mississippi.