In 1955 life was good on Wharehouse Cove in South River Park--and me and my friends were like river rats--we hung out on the water a lot.
Dad didn't let me use his motor,only the boat with oars--so it was very welcomed news when my friends father bought a 5 h.p motor and said we could use it--the only problem was his older brother Jim always beat us home and took the motor to use himself---He thought it was really funny to and rubbed it in every chance he got.
This went on for a week and it wasn't fair,we hadn't even gotten to try that beauty and could only imagine the fun of motor driven aquatic mobility and not having to row everywhere we went.
Friday rolled around and John and I raced home from school as fast as we could,brother Jim must have been slightly held up--is all I can think--because we arrived at Johns house first.
We weren't strong enough to carry the outboard down the hill to the water so we got the wheel borrow and loaded it in that and took off down the hill,heard shouting--and here came the older brother,we had a lead that was closing fast-we got to the water,I carried the motor to the back and turned the tightening handal twice while John pushed the boat out as Jim his older brother arrived at the waters edge and waded out to grab the boat--I pulled the start cord once and that baby fired up-into reverse and we avoided the older brothers clutches barely---as he shouted and waved his fist--we cheered and gunned the motor--we were free--we had won--we were mobile and headed for the South River. We made it to the curve in the cove and the motor made a loud whineing sound-literaly jumped straight up in the air right off the transome and sank to the bottom.We later learned the depth was 40 feet.
Oh brother we were in trouble,a brand new motor deep sixed to the bottom and we figured we wouldn't see our allowance or have any free time for the rest of our lives.
My dad and Johns father arrived home from work and were fairly ticked off but not as bad as we thought they would be,maybe they remembered their own boyhoods.They had us show them exactly where the motor went down.The two fathers took turns free diving in the semi clear cove and found the motor and hauled it to the surface.It had to be disassembled and cleaned but ran just fine afterward-but I don't remember ever using it again.
I'm pretty careful these days -making sure I tighten things properly and think about the incident quite often.It was a coup to beat Johns brother that day and a couple more twist on the tightening bolts and we would have been home free. Eric the Codger