Even though my brother loved to dig in the sand and I loved the water, we always played together when we had the RC boat with us. That boat was special! It was made of wood with a white hull with sky blue trim and, an actual teak wood floor! It was very detailed right down to the chrome cleats, studs, and flagpole.
On one particular trip to the lake, there were other kids that wanted to play with the boat too.
My brother, having a bit of a mean streak in him, made the boat go way out into the deep water so the other kids couldn’t get at it. The lake, named Mauthe Lake, was a relatively small lake, I guess about 20 acres, so there never were any real waves to be concerned with and the boat just kept going and going. The other kids pushed and shoved him because he wouldn’t share.
Inevitably, the RC boat’s batteries went dead of course. Oh oh! The boat was helpless and out in the middle of the lake. The wind pushed it toward the opposite shore and into the weeds near the horseback riding trails.
The other kids taunted and teased my brother for his short term thinking. (I have to admit that I was secretly snickering at him too.) Oh boy Dad was going to be mad if we didn’t bring that boat home!
Because Mom used to tell us she was a great swimmer we asked her to rescue the boat. But, there was no amount of begging that would get her to swim after that boat. I couldn’t swim to retrieve it either, I was too young.
By this time all the other parents and kids were looking out at the lake at the inoperable RC boat and trying to figure out what to do.
Meanwhile, across the lake, some horseback riders came into view. We all started yelling and jumping and pointing. I’m not sure they saw or heard us but they did see our boat! One of the riders rode his horse into the lake and, horse and rider swam to the boat and retrieved it! YES!!
Once the riders rode around the lake to our beach the boat was returned to our mother. She promptly put it into the trunk of our ’57 Chevy. Sadly, we never saw that boat again. I sure do wish I knew what happened to it.
I went back to playing in the water. My brother, along with his former adversaries, (now best buddies) started building sand castles.