…gently down the
stream.
Or not.
This isn’t a stream.
This is Linnekin Bay,
East Boothbay, Maine in the summer of 1900 or so, and the two boys in the
dinghy are my great uncles. I think it’s Richard and Allen, although I can’t be
sure—they all look pretty much the same in the summer outfits: shirts, pants,
crusher hats and rubber-soled shoes.
There’s an old dock in the background
and seaweed-covered rocks in the fore; I can tell that it’s low tide. The
ground slopes up from the rocks and I can barely see the bottom of a house in
the background; now, one hundred years later, after too much erosion, there’s a
seawall along the shore there.
I think this photo was taken in front of what was called the Red
Cottage—it was where the Gould family went each summer to get out of the
smothering heat of the Boston area—later on, after my grandfather married, they
summered in her family home just down
the road.
My guess is that this
little rowboat is the one they used to run back and forth between the shoreline
and the family sailboat, moored out in deeper water—Allen’s weight has left the
bow high and the aft end very close to the Atlantic! I’ve got lots of photos of
them in the sailboat (they’re wearing shirts and ties in some of them, for
goodness’ sake!).
Ahhhh, summer!
Hope yours is going
well, and that you’ve got secure oarlocks to get you through!
I remember a friend and I rented a rowboat once to row around a pretty little lake. Until then, I had never realized how not easy it is to row a boat! My muscles ached for a week!
ReplyDeleteI spent summers on a lake in NH, Gail; we were in and out of rowboats all the time! It takes getting used to, but once you're "fluent," it's a great way to get around!
DeleteQuite right; one always wears one’s best outfits for a boat trip! Red Cottage sounds a wonderful way to escape the city heat.
ReplyDeleteIt was. The cottage is still standing, but it's now white -- somehow, White Cottage doesn't make it!
DeleteSuch a tiny little boat, but it afforded them a way around the water. Yes, summers have changed so much thanks to air conditioning!
ReplyDeleteI still don't have AC. There are about five nights a year in Maine when I wish I had it, but after those five nights, things are fine.
DeleteIt does look like another 10 lbs and the boat would be under water back there.
ReplyDeleteAnother 10 lbs or another brother...whatever!
DeleteThe boat might have been more balanced if they'd had someone sitting at the other end, but perhaps that would have just made things worse!
ReplyDeleteI fear that one more brother would have been too much total weight, and the whole kit and kaboodle would go under!
DeleteAhh, a family sailboat. So this is the dinghy and there's a bigger boat. Was it a large family because this little dinghy would take a long time to ferry folks back and forth.
ReplyDeleteAll the boys sailed; I'm not sure about Margaret (who was the only girl in the family. The dinghy didn't have to go far -- only out to the mooring, for there wasn't enough deep water close to shore.
Delete