Date: 1 August 2014. Boating Changes over the Decades.

© janice142
 

Boating has gone through many changes over the decades I have been enjoying same. In the early 60's boats were much smaller and the boaters we met were predominantly retired folks. As a matter of fact, during my entire childhood I remember just a half dozen other children living aboard boats and none had been born aboard.  I was alone. Still am...
 

Calvert [http://calverteducation.com] provided lessons for some and I certainly sold enough book reports to students to make it worth my while. $1 per page incidentally was the going rate. As long as I was reading a book, typing a report to sell later seemed like an easy money making endeavor to me.

I typed a one page synopsis of each book I read, thus having a ready supply of book reports.


 

For others, private tutors were an option selected by those with means. Mostly our fellow cruising partners were kind enough to share their interests and taught me the necessities.  The best teacher though was Mother.
 

She taught me to read when I was quite young and that was truly the best gift ever. Learning how others lived long ago and into the future was fascinating. I still love reading. Recently I have read/am reading some Bennett Cerf anthologies.

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Bennett Cerf's The Laugh's on Me	Bennett Cerf's Laugh Day	Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me	Bennett Cerf's The Life of the Party

Note re the Bennett Cerf books: these contain mostly anecdotes and short blurbs. They are guaranteed to make me smile. In this politically correct world these would be considered bad. I am an adult, and a redhead at that. When I read about a tight Scotsman I pick the relative. And a Irishman would naturally either own a pub or be a policeman. These books are stereotypical humor of the age. I like it. You may not.

As for home school options, Calvert has not changed much over the years. It is classical education at its finest and everything literally comes in the box. I used it with my duo too, and the same poem I had to memorize is still in the curriculum.  Sea Fever is one of my favorites to this day.

 

The 1970's brought a new set of youthful boaters. They were the hippies and frankly not an improvement in my view. Of course the younger folks did what young people do and soon enough there were babies on the way. Some of those parental units stuck with boating but for the most part, they moved on to dirt and joined the mainstream.
 

Following the pot-smoking hippies, came the wealthier yuppies. Suddenly larger incomes brought conspicuous consumption and yachting became an attainable goal. Boats became larger, faster and lots fancier.  It was an improvement and there can certainly be many good things said about visiting a decadent life aboard a yacht.
 

Cocktails onboard a Hatteras can be quite the aphrodisiac. And that is one reason why Hatts are so popular.

Now we see the prices of fuel skyrocketing and the doomsayers are out in full regalia. Always there have been those swearing that the boating experience has "Changed for the Worse" and is on it's last sea legs.
 

Boating has changed and so too has everything in the world.

I have chosen to celebrate the new while seeking comfort in the familiar. Perhaps you as well?
 

What changes have you seen over the years?
Is boating on it's last sea legs?
 

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Category: Boat Talk, Books, Characters, Memory Lane, Vignettes

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