One Click Captures So Much Good In The World
Perfection
From time to time I run across an image that just drips of memories. Today is such a day. This wonderful post card from Minnesota could have been shot almost anyplace. Actually it feels like it’s a photo of my memories, dreams, and the carrot that sometimes leads my passion of classic boating. Note, its not about the boat per-say, it’s about the moment, the entirety of it all. The light, the times when life was more innocent. Dad would go rent a boat, and we would go exploring, fishing, and just be together. THATS what we are all about. Thats are jobs now. To give our children and others these powerful moments so they can have these sorts of visions in their minds to strive for without knowing they are. Not the visual diarrhea known as social media, 24 hr news cycles and click bait. Wait, hold on, guilty, guilty, and oh boy… maybe I should stay away from the mirror while preaching..
Green Lake 1977 There was some good during the 70’s,
Son and granddaughter on the river making memories.
Great shot!
When I was a kid, we spent some family time on Belle Isle. It is an island in the Detroit River on the east side of the city. You could rent an aluminum canoe and explore a series of canals internal to the island. This photo reminds me of those tree lined canals. Detroit was a much different place back then!
Simpler times for sure!!!!
So much of this would not be accepted today. The boy fishing with a spear and feathers, the bow and arrow with feathers, and the resort would need to change it’s name to Indigenous Peoples Beach Resort.
I think the Easter Seals stamp would still be OK, but who knows.
I never know why sometimes pictures work and other times they don’t.
Matt will probably fix it and it will be up there twice.
A real timepiece. Dad and son have life jackets on. Mom doesn’t need one. She was an ex olympic swimmer. I Like that 5 hp Johnson on the boat. Oh by the way Matt. Is Floyd M. Smith any relation?
That for sure brings back memories.
I remember the first pontoon boats made from surplus 55 gallon drums. Our neighbor had one painted the same green color
I guess dad gave up on trying to start that cantankerous outboard and just decided to row. I can relate. We never had any problems getting them started when I was a kid in the early ‘60’s. Even my 13 yr old cousin Kathy could start and operate my uncles 15 hp Johnson we use to ski behind on Little Sebago. Now, The few vintage outboards I’ve had and tried to start have been a PIA. Maybe it’s the fuel or it’s the same reason it takes me a while to get started after 70 years of hard use.
In 1952, my mother operating our skiff with me at 2 years old just putting around. She would have been 21 at the time and able to start that little, at that time, already a vintage motor it appears.
I’d have to say that post card photo is quite a bit earlier than ’77.Perhaps by about 15 years? Can anyone date it by some of it’s contents? Hairstyles? There is a car on upper far right by the house but I can’t make it out.
I just lived those moments those weeks in August. The Family. The River. The Lyman.
Car looks like a 55 Ford and the Johnson outboard on the boat to the left is a 55 or 56 model maybe 10 hp. I had one and an Evinrude 5.5 a 55 model. Sure was simple. We also had a 10 hp Martin, made by Martin Pressure Cooker Co. Always started when you left the harbor to go out fishing in the Mississippi Sound, Storm coming, damn thing would not start. Had to row the old wood skiff back to the harbor. My dad would sit in the back of the boat. Always started when it went to the shop. One day I was rowing in and my dad just unscrewed the clamps and picked it up and threw it overboard. Had a great smile on his face. We then went and bought a 5.5 hp 1955 Evinrude, never quit running even after 25 years.
That is hilarious! Would have been great on video.
Much like a old boat, this spot may have lost some of its luster
Streetview
Green Lake is outside Willmar, Minnesota, where my wife grew up. Like so many lakes, the resorts have closed and the small family cabins have been replaced by large lake homes. Not judging, just the natural evolution of things. But that’s also changed the nature of boating. When Midwestern lakes were surrounded by mom and pop resorts and small, rustic cabins the mode of transport was a small fishing boat with a small outboard, to -you know- go fishing. The ratio of people who went “pleasure boating” was much lower. Now our lakes are surrounded by large homes where everyone has a “luxurious” pontoon or wakeboat and everyone goes pleasure boating. Our cabin is on a 2,000 acre lane 70 miles from Minneapolis. I counted and found that there once were seven resorts on our bay alone, all with docks full of small fishing boats with small outboards or oars. The woody Chris Crafts and Century’s that plied this lake decades ago would have been, relatively, in the minority.