I have had so many wonderful memories of Jimmy that it would be impossible to call anyone of them my “favorite”. This particular memory stands out because it was the start of many more, tells the story of the maiden voyage of my canoe “built for three” and ends with the last journey and a bottomless pit of “material” for Jimmy and Sean.
Sean and I began a father and son fishing, camping and floating trip ritual on the Delaware River in Barryville, NY 22 years ago when Sean was 8. Back at the beginning we would rent a raft along with Bill and Bob and then Bill and Matt. But a few years later Bill bought his own raft for his family and the trip expanded to include Jimmy as well as my brother John making it difficult for us to manage the float trip. Bill and his family used their raft, John would rent a canoe for him and his guest and that left Jimmy, Sean and I with limited options. We could not rent a raft because back then, the “boys” did not have the strength or stamina to handle the raft in low flows or headwinds. We could not rent a canoe because they were not designed to carry three people. So the only option for us was to buy a canoe capable of handling the three of us and fit it with a middle seat. The photo I have included (Jimmy, Sean and Matt in the picture) was taken on its maiden voyage, the first of dozens of trips and countless memories.
As time went on, and Jimmy and Sean grew from boys to young men, the canoe became a challenge. Center of gravity is everything in a canoe if you want to remain upright and Jimmy shot up very quickly, earning him the nickname “stretch” by Bill. I tried to lower our center of gravity by adding extensions to the seats and that mostly worked until it was Sean’s turn to “stretch”. Our center of gravity in that canoe was no longer a match for the swift current and the countless rocks and boulders that were its most visible attributes. Everyone who knows me, Jimmy and Sean especially, is keenly aware that I am a safety freak. So you can imagine what those float trips were like with three 6 footers and a nervous parent. Since Jimmy was the tallest of us he could no longer ride in the middle seat so he took over Sean’s role as “scout” and rode in the bow. But with Jimmy being so tall I could no longer see downstream so it meant that he had the job of spotting the obstacles and giving me direction. Now every time we hit anything, be it major or minor, I would vocalize my frustration to Jimmy. “You didn’t tell me about that one”, “you need to pay more attention”, “you said right and the rock was left” – I think you get the picture. Instead of getting mad at me, Jimmy turned it back on me. That was Jimmy --- he did that so well. Jimmy and Sean turned my anxiety into a joke and the two of them busted my chops over and over again.
When I started this tribute I made reference to the last journey and that is the funniest and most memorable part of this story. The three of us loaded the canoe and headed down river for a day on the water. We always secured our belongings to prevent loss should we capsize, especially our rods and reels, but since we had just started out we had not completed that task. The water was very low for this trip and that meant navigating without hitting anything was impossible. Almost immediately after we launched we hit a series of rocks and the canoe got hung up and was teetering broadside. I yelled out, “DO NOT MOVE – NO ONE MOVE AN INCH – JIMMY, SEAN DO NOTTTT MOVE”. I was shaking in my boots and Jimmy and Sean were laughing their butts off. Moments later we capsized, our gear - rods and reels included, was in the water. Now I was even more frantic --- yet Jimmy and Sean continued to mostly ignore me. You see, we were capsized in about a foot of water! Jimmy and Sean simply reached into the water, retrieved all of our belongings, tilted the canoe to drain the water we took on and that was that. That was the last time the three of us used that canoe, Jimmy and Sean opting instead to take their own raft for the remainder of our river trips. But for the rest of our time together, Jimmy and Sean seized every opportunity to bust my chops --- repeating --- DO NOT MOVE. NO ONE MOVE. DO NOTTTT MOVE!
