A mini bike! I might have been 10 maybe? Never forget that shiny new RUPP mini bike with the centrifugal torque clutch making her a fully automatic bike that could zoom up to 20 MPH easily.
Shiny Blue with lots of Chrome on the fenders, she was a beauty.
Keeping it in a trailer in the yard so we could pull it down to the trails to run her around. I could not wait for the time to come when I could jump on her, pull that starter chord and speed away. As a child in the 60's, Being like Easy Rider was a big deal. As SteppinWolf put it, I was "born to be wild.."
Fast Fwd a cpl years. My younger brothers and I are all on Suzuki Motorcycles ranging from a little 50cc trailHopper for my youngest Brother Matt, a 50cc enduro for Kelly, and an 90cc enduro for me.
Of course Dad was a very smart guy and knew the only way mom would not put the kibosh on the whole thing was to buy her a bike as well. She got a Suzuki GL125 of her very own to ride along with us while dad enjoyed a 385cc big bike (big to us anyway). Mom never so much as sat on hers but at least she let us ride ours! I actually have that very GL125 sitting in my garage right now with 2000 original miles on it! Ive been restoring it as a home project.
That wasn't enough for dad and us. we needed more fun. In Cleveland, Summer time was very hot and humid and the best way to beat the heat was a boat! yes DAD!!!! so we were the proud owners of an old Larson Lapland 19 foot IO with a volvo 4 Cylinder engine that was capable of pushing that heavy old boat with 3 kids and 2 adults around the Cleveland shoreline at a whopping 12 knotts or so.
We all learned to Ski and learned how to steer her, how to drop anchor, and sometimes when needed, we learned how to Paddle her to shore!
That was the beginning. The spell was cast. water was introduced into our lives on the shores of Lake Erie along Cleveland's skyline, Edgewater beach, the 5 mile Crib, the Break wall (as we knew it), and of course the historic Lighthouse marking the channel to the Cuyahoga River. We danced around many an Ore Boat coming and going, playing in the immense Wake behind the huge Tugs as they plowed their way out to meet the Ore boats to turn them around and push them down the river.
Dad was never satisfied! we never let him be. The newest addition to our family was a 30' House Boat! our home away from home. my 2 younger Brothers and I spent 2 entire summers on that floating mansion while mom and dad worked. Almost a daily routine when mom and dad got off work we would cast off our slip at Cuyahoga Boat and Engine down on a branch of the Cuyahoga and head for 9th Street Pier where we would tie up while mom made dinner. we would sit and eat and then always go to the 9th st. Pier custard stand for some of Cleveland's finest offerings in Frozen Custard. Only to be rivaled by Euclid Beach Custard at the Amusement park there.
During these magical years it was also a tradition set by mom that we would attended Church every sunday without fail. I do mean WITHOUT fail! we received countless perfect attendance buttons over the years for never missing a sunday school class. That is with only one exception; Church Camp! This was counted in attendance so never logged as a missed sunday. Mission Meadows Camp in Dewittville New York on Lake Chataqua. Wow, I can still get warm feelings just thinking of all the memories of my time at camp, family retreat weekend, and of course, the work weekends when we would go open and clean up at the season beginning, or close up at the end of the season. Dad Loved driving that tractor to cut the grass. It was his only job as I could remember and to this day, the smell of fresh cut fields takes me back to that time.
Summer Camp held all the special things that it should have; fist times away from home, first time learning how to jump on a trampoline, the Archery range, polar bear swim club, baseball, Capture the Flag, devotions, camp fires, and oh yes.. my first love! Of course I was too shy to ever say anything but Janet Rinaldo from Jamestown New York, you were my first Love! I will never forget waving good bye to you as your family came and got you by boat. Then off you went... so much for first love!
But, there was something very special at Camp that makes this all relevant. SUNFISH! I learned how to sail a sunfish! That was it. I knew what a tiller was, a sail was, I knew what a Bowland knot was and how to tie it. I learned a figure eight, a half hitch, a clove hitch! I considered myself from this time forward.. a SAILOR!
now when we went out on the houseboat which after a couple years was replaced by a very short owned 50 footer, I was always looking at the sailboats. As I watched my dad add a second 50 Gallon Fuel tank to our House Boat so we could make it across Lake Erie to Rondeau bay Canada which was a 50 mile or so trip due north from the 5 mile crib off cleveland's lakefront, I was thinking how much that cost to run and if only we had a sail...
I was hooked and I might add chided quite a bit by my brothers about liking "blow Boats". I secretly remained true to my desire and admired them from afar. Teenage years brought the normal distractions of cars, girls, jobs, school, and then military duty. I joined the Army following my older Brothers lead looking to go get into the thick of it during Viet Nam. I joined in 1975 but had to wait until I graduated High School in 76 before I could actually go. Wouldn't you know they shut that darn war down a month after I joined? Was I sad? At the time yes! My brother was 101st Airborne and a screaming Eagle paratrooper! He was awarded some very impressive medals for saving peoples lives while on patrol and even was wounded doing it. Yes I wanted to be like him.
After he came home just before I left to go, I learned the real damage that war did and even then, didn't really understand until many years later.
I joined the Army as a Watercraft Operator. A 61B. They taught me how to pilot sea going tugs, seamanship the army way, and finally I ended up in Fort Story Virginia the home of the Larc. Lighter Amphibeous Resupply Cargo vessel. Its 6 1/2 foot Diameter Rubber Tires allowed it to drive up on beaches and over the dunes carrying a fair sized payload without having to stop. I was back on the water!
Peace time Army was a crazy time. Especially when all my NCO's and CO's were straight back from Viet Nam and really didn't care much about anything regarding regulations, or decorum. it was a crazy time. Jimmy Carters Army was a mess. They stuck me and a squad of other watercraft operators in with the mechanics when we first got there because there was no room for us in with the other operators. Finally we found our way to where we belonged operating Amphibs, and ripping up the shoreline of Fort Story.
Coming home to a new wife and new mortgage at the age of 21 put the crunch on me to get a job and start making my way which I did. Dad had sold all the boats and finally settled in with a neat little SunRunner 20 footer which all the kids were able to enjoy now all being old enough to take her out when we wanted. Mom and Dad were divorced now and He didn't get out as much, but we would take him out along the river nightlife when we had the chance and we all enjoyed to antics of the Flats.
I was struggling to keep a job during Reaganomics and the Lake got farther and farther away from me as I fought to make money. Then came the inevitable, we were blessed with a child. Christopher came to us in 1982 and I was a proud dad. Everything was now for Christopher. Now I was that crazy Dad who wanted to do everything with Chris and give him the opportunity to experience my childhood. Bikes and Dads Boat and Camping, and baseball, ice hockey, we did what we could to provide. We were fairly successful depending on who's perspective you hear, rental properties, selling out starter home and moving into a good neighborhood, good school system and the good people of brooklyn Ohio, we were winning. Dad sold his boat, Chris graduated and went on to College, Recognizing the internal call for me to keep moving caused a divorced and I moved away in pursuit of my dream; I wanted to live on the water and my own boat!
A year of searching led me to downtown Lorain Ohio where on the waterfront stood a century home staring out at a historic lighthouse at the mouth of the black river. the shore was lined with the city marina with the city pier right across the street from my front porch. I was home! My goal was to get that old house up to snuff, then eventually get a sailboat and put it in that marina across the street.
I was on my way toward my dream when the struggles of managing the restoration of a home with champagne tastes and a beer budget began to give me reality checks as to the magnitude of the tasks I undertook. Seeing the grasp of my dream right there, yet just out of reach I did something crazy. I fell in Love again. This time with someone who shared my dream of getting out and experiencing life. Only issue, 3 wonderful children who were so in need of a father figure. I fell for them without hesitation and now my course was altered to a new timeline. But this time I had a partner who shares it with me to this very day.
So here we are in St. Louis Mo. in the middle of the United States as land locked as you could be pursuing our dream! I guess when I said I wanted to be by water, I should have been more specific. The mighty Mississippi was never even a thought much less a goal. However following our fortune we are here for now, we have our 30' hunter sail boat and are sailing her around the Carlysle Reservoir practicing, and training for that glorious day when we point hang a "for sale" sign on her and move up to something a little more livable and cruisable, get her up to Lake Michigan, sail the Great Lakes, make our glorious stop in Cleveland Ohio for a brief reunion with family and long time friends before we continue on for the Erie Canal and out through the Hudson River, New York Harbor, hang a left for Long Island sound, a mandatory stop over in North Harbor on acadia island, some lobster in bar Harbor, then from there, weather and seasons will determine our future.
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