Boats - Part 2

The scary motor
Another one of my earliest boating memories is how my father would clean the outboard motor after each use in the saltwater. When I was young we would always bring the boat back to town after being down at the coast. Dad would sometimes wait to spray down the outboard motor with WD-40 once we got back to the house in town. As I can recall, he would somehow have water running through the motor to flush out any remaining saltwater from the pump. I don't think he had a hose and cup back then. What I seem to remember is that he would place an empty garbage can under the prop and make sure that the pump intake was submerged after filling the can with water. He would then crank up the motor in the front driveway of our house to clear out the saltwater left in the water pump. While the motor was running, he would also remove the cover to the outboard. With the cover off, he could then spray down the engine ensuring that all the parts that might have gotten salt water on them would be protected.

The removal of the outboard cover absolutely terrified me. First of all the exposed engine was so frightening looking. Second, the cover muffles a lot of the sound of the running outboard. So much so that when you take the cover off it becomes so much louder with a more sinister growl. Some part of my mind thought that the engine was a monster. Years later when I saw Star Wars I think I halfway expected that under Darth Vader's helmet was an outboard engine. I always dreaded that some problem would occur with us all in the boat and Dad would need to remove the outboard cover. As I got older, I obviously overcame this fear, but I can still remember running up to my room, which was on the opposite side of the house, anytime my Dad cranked up the motor in the driveway.

Old Motors
I mentioned in "Boats - Part 1" how a boat provides early life lessons. Hoke Oliver had an old 7 or 10 horse power evinrude outboard, which I can only guess was built in the 40s or 50s. He would mount it on the back of his john boat to use for fishing or setting crab traps. That old motor was a prime example of the quality that used to go into things and how long something can last if you took good care of it. It also taught me early on that newer isn't always better. I do believe that the motor did owe a part of it's longevity to Mr. Oliver. He was pretty handy with small engines and could provide any service needed to that engine to keep it going through the years.

Small engines were not the limits to Mr. Oliver's expertise. His house was 2 doors down and between ours and the Nelson's. He was a person who always had a smile on his face. Anytime we caught a fish that we could not identify, we would run over to Mr. Oliver and he could identify it. The time Jack and Chris Lowman and my brother and I caught a giant Jack Crevalle off the Alligator point spit, it was Mr. Oliver who identified the fish for us. He once raked up a coral snake in his front yard and brought over to our house for us to see. I learned that coral snakes can live under the pine straw at the beach and if "red meets yellow, it can kill a fellow". Mr. Oliver used to also keep a couple of quail feeders back behind the houses in the woods. In mornings and afternoons, you would hear Bobwhite quail calling each other with their distinctive "bob-white" whistle. If you hear a bobwhite down there today, there's a good chance that it is the descendant to one released years ago by Mr. Oliver.