This video by Kirsten Dirksen kinda takes me back to the old days… you know, back when I was much newer.
Dad was a true river rat. Loved boats and the river life, so naturally sister and I were raised, in part, on the Ohio River, down in Bethlehem, IN, where the family had a 13-acre farm with 800′ of river frontage. One day Dad comes chugging down the river towing an old shantyboat he had bought for $200 from an even older river rat, Grover, who was known in those parts for washing his feet in the river every morning. Pretty sure that was the only part of him that got washed every day.
Our particular shantyboat was 30′ 6″ long, 10′ wide, with a heavy hull built of thick creosoted wood. She boasted a snug, two-room cabin, with a porcelain sink (no running water, though), and a massive old 4-hole cook stove that, with a fire well-established, would run you outta there even on the coldest day. The shanty was probably built in the late 1800s or early 1900s, from all reports, though no one in Bethlehem actually knew… she had just been there forever, as far as anyone could remember.
We probably gave the old shantyboat a name, but damned if I can recall. She never came out of the water, Dad and I would stay aboard and ride it up and down the bank during the Spring flood season, watching the tempestuous river closely for 55-gallon barrels, detached sections of dock and similar detritus that would get busted loose upstream by the rising waters, brought down for us to salvage with the old johnboat. Needless to say, Mark Twain was a favorite author in those days.
Our old shantyboat experienced an unfortunate end… though that’s a story for another day.
