STORY PAGE
Payback
Having the use of a boat and motor at a young age was unusual in the 40's and 50's, but around Sandy Pond it was not unique. I remember that there were at least nine of us and I am sure that there were many I do not remember or never met. Those I do remember were not considered as being from well-to-do families. In fact, getting money for gas and oil was sometimes a problem. When the allowance was gone (most of the time) and the gas cans empty, it was terrible.
During one of these times I found a job cutting grass for a well-to-do cottage owner not too far away. It was a large lawn and I enlisted a buddy to help mow. It was not only large, it also contained many areas needing to be trimmed with hand clippers.
My buddy would not share the job of clipping. He had agreed to help mow, but wanted no part of clipping. Needless to say, when the job was completed, and I went to collect our fee, I had a sore back from stooping and aching hands from clipping.
My efforts had not gone unnoticed. The lady who paid me the agreed upon fee gave me an additional fifty cents and told me that she knew how hard the clipping must have been.
On the way back home my buddy indicated that he had spent as much time there as I, and that I should share the additional funds. I told my buddy that I had asked him to help with the trimming and he had refused. The fifty cents belonged to me.
The job had taken up the remainder of the day. There was enough time before supper however to get the tank replenished for the following day. At supper my Grandmother came to me and asked me for the fifty cents. I will not go into details, but to make a long story short, my buddy had told his mother a different story, his mother told my Grandmother, she took the extra fifty cents and gave it to my buddy. The friendship we had disappeared.
Time has a way of healing these type of things and the following year we were again boating together. One day we were exploring a creek on the other side of the Pond. My buddy was riding with me as his dad had taken "his" boat fishing. Another friend was following us in his own boat.
All of a sudden as the creek turned there was a large overhead branch attached to a huge tree growing from the swampy side. It was almost low enough to be reached by standing on "tippie toes". I handed the tiller to my buddy and jumped up and held on to the limb. I then dropped down into my other friend's boat following behind. Both boats turned and I took the tiller so my other friend could do the same. and drop in my boat. He in turn took the tiller of my boat and my mowing buddy took his turn at the limb..
We left him hanging from the tree. As we were leaving he asked, "Did you plan this?" I told him, "Yes" and then asked, "Was it was worth the fifty cents? Think about it the next time you cry to mommy."
I do not know how he made it back home, although I assume he had to at least swim to the good side.
Time eventually allowed us to be on speaking terms, but neither the lawn mowing or the tree limb was ever a topic of our conversation. If he ran to Mommy again, I never heard about it.
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