in the old days, back in the late 60's early 70's , when i was a lad and my disfunctional dad would take us out my uncle lennys twin screw criscraft with the magnito ingnition out of whitestone marina
lenny was and old navy cheif with combat service in WW2 pacific theater and korea, who would drink schafer after schafer beer out of them old tin cans he would give me the honor of opening with the pie cutter can opener, lenny would sit up on the flybridge, with his crusty captains cap on, as he sucked the schafers dry, he would tosss them tin cans over his sholder, into the wash and yell to me "splice the main brace!" or something like that....drink like 30 cans in a afternoon! when he got real drunk and went into the cabin to piss in the bucket that fit into the head, lenny would let one of us kids steer the boat(trolling speed) untill he got back from pisssing
"splice the main brace!" that meant i had to grab another beer from the metal coleman cooler and run it up to the bridge, pull the opener out of my pocket and put the two holes in the top of the can, one hole a big one and a smaller one on the other side
he would sit up there getting pie-eyed , trolling us back and forth under the bridges (whitestone and throgs neck) all day long, till the beer ran out!
i remember we would troll stailless steel wire line with the big bunker spoons for weeks, blues, line-siders then in the later years, my old man got pissed one day at the wire line, screaming at us kids with his own frustration, while uncle lenny was up on the bridge with a big smile on his face , mumbleing in a drunken stupor "birds-nest again?"
we always caught fish, but we kids(brother chris 2years younger than me and older sister renee' year old than me) were not allowed to touch the dam tackle on orders from my grouchey old man " you friggin kids are gonna birds-nest the god dam poles" he would say. so we would sit in the front and wait for the ******* to to tangle him-self up witch usually only took a few minutes and he would either birds nest the wire line or snag bottom(probally uncle lennys mounntain of schafer cans down there) we kids would get yelled at again for "friggin sittin up there donig nothing".
then the next weekend my pop had respooled with nylon covered lead core line, that changed color on the covering every 10 yerds so you could tell how far out it was, with the lead core line i remember there suddenly appered "umberlla rigs" on the baot, and also 18" long lead head eels with 2 hook
appertnly the wire core crap was easyer to use and did not tangle and also because he could tell how far out it was by counting the colors, snagging the bottom did not happen so much....we kids were finally allowed to reel in fish!
on the way in to marina , lenny would curse the "sky-larks" and the "jabonies". these were other boaters that did not meet uncle lennys seamanship standards
jeezus i still remember watching them emptys bob and float in the wash from lennys twin chrystlers, i would watch them float all the way back eventually they would fill with brine and sink about 200 yerds back, i remember it like it was yesterday,
lenny would yell "flotsum" when he saw some others boats beer cans in the water and yell "jetsum" when he threw his own over.
we did not hear much from uncle lenny if it was not related to him killing "jap shore batteries" 40mm shells(2 of which were mounted on either side of the cris-crafe bridge, always polished to a shiney brass, beers or boats. same stuff over and over
i was 9 years old when this started, he finally drank himself to death when i was 15 but not before loosing both legs to the doctors knife due to "sugar", what ever that was
so forget the licenses, forget the beer, but dont forget uncle lenny
does anyone know what the following sea slang means?
splice the main brace
flotsum
jetsum
sky-lark
jabronie
sugar as related to an illness
boy, them were good days for a kid, to be exposed to my disfunctional dad for hours on end(he has been on prozac for the past 5 years and doing no better), got to spend lots of time digging into the chipped block ice filled cooler for lennys schafers
i rmember the white cris-craft with the sky-blue trim and varnished wood work, all the britework was always clean and shiney
looking back i am sure the motors were chrystlers with magnitos because they were that light blue-green color that them chrystleys came in, and lenny had to use bus battery and jumper cables to start it, then the battery and jumper cables got stowed under the seat. once it was started the battery went away
open the hatches, check the oil, turn on the fuel valves, spray stuff into the carbarotor(either?) get the battery out from under the seat(weight 70lbs) hook the cables to the starter directly, choke the bitch and hit the starter button, man when them engines spraked over, powerful rumble, gurgled by the water, then he would do the other engine. i remember it was always the port engine first
he would gas up at the gas barge with "white gas" what ever the **** that was. i remember gassing up at the whitestone marina and one time in manhasset bay at the gulf gas barge
anyone else wanna relate a yarn on there first saltwater fishing experences as related to boating or how screwed up the dads are when you went fishing as a kid?
dino
lenny was and old navy cheif with combat service in WW2 pacific theater and korea, who would drink schafer after schafer beer out of them old tin cans he would give me the honor of opening with the pie cutter can opener, lenny would sit up on the flybridge, with his crusty captains cap on, as he sucked the schafers dry, he would tosss them tin cans over his sholder, into the wash and yell to me "splice the main brace!" or something like that....drink like 30 cans in a afternoon! when he got real drunk and went into the cabin to piss in the bucket that fit into the head, lenny would let one of us kids steer the boat(trolling speed) untill he got back from pisssing
"splice the main brace!" that meant i had to grab another beer from the metal coleman cooler and run it up to the bridge, pull the opener out of my pocket and put the two holes in the top of the can, one hole a big one and a smaller one on the other side
he would sit up there getting pie-eyed , trolling us back and forth under the bridges (whitestone and throgs neck) all day long, till the beer ran out!
i remember we would troll stailless steel wire line with the big bunker spoons for weeks, blues, line-siders then in the later years, my old man got pissed one day at the wire line, screaming at us kids with his own frustration, while uncle lenny was up on the bridge with a big smile on his face , mumbleing in a drunken stupor "birds-nest again?"
we always caught fish, but we kids(brother chris 2years younger than me and older sister renee' year old than me) were not allowed to touch the dam tackle on orders from my grouchey old man " you friggin kids are gonna birds-nest the god dam poles" he would say. so we would sit in the front and wait for the ******* to to tangle him-self up witch usually only took a few minutes and he would either birds nest the wire line or snag bottom(probally uncle lennys mounntain of schafer cans down there) we kids would get yelled at again for "friggin sittin up there donig nothing".
then the next weekend my pop had respooled with nylon covered lead core line, that changed color on the covering every 10 yerds so you could tell how far out it was, with the lead core line i remember there suddenly appered "umberlla rigs" on the baot, and also 18" long lead head eels with 2 hook
appertnly the wire core crap was easyer to use and did not tangle and also because he could tell how far out it was by counting the colors, snagging the bottom did not happen so much....we kids were finally allowed to reel in fish!
on the way in to marina , lenny would curse the "sky-larks" and the "jabonies". these were other boaters that did not meet uncle lennys seamanship standards
jeezus i still remember watching them emptys bob and float in the wash from lennys twin chrystlers, i would watch them float all the way back eventually they would fill with brine and sink about 200 yerds back, i remember it like it was yesterday,
lenny would yell "flotsum" when he saw some others boats beer cans in the water and yell "jetsum" when he threw his own over.
we did not hear much from uncle lenny if it was not related to him killing "jap shore batteries" 40mm shells(2 of which were mounted on either side of the cris-crafe bridge, always polished to a shiney brass, beers or boats. same stuff over and over
i was 9 years old when this started, he finally drank himself to death when i was 15 but not before loosing both legs to the doctors knife due to "sugar", what ever that was
so forget the licenses, forget the beer, but dont forget uncle lenny
does anyone know what the following sea slang means?
splice the main brace
flotsum
jetsum
sky-lark
jabronie
sugar as related to an illness
boy, them were good days for a kid, to be exposed to my disfunctional dad for hours on end(he has been on prozac for the past 5 years and doing no better), got to spend lots of time digging into the chipped block ice filled cooler for lennys schafers
i rmember the white cris-craft with the sky-blue trim and varnished wood work, all the britework was always clean and shiney
looking back i am sure the motors were chrystlers with magnitos because they were that light blue-green color that them chrystleys came in, and lenny had to use bus battery and jumper cables to start it, then the battery and jumper cables got stowed under the seat. once it was started the battery went away
open the hatches, check the oil, turn on the fuel valves, spray stuff into the carbarotor(either?) get the battery out from under the seat(weight 70lbs) hook the cables to the starter directly, choke the bitch and hit the starter button, man when them engines spraked over, powerful rumble, gurgled by the water, then he would do the other engine. i remember it was always the port engine first
he would gas up at the gas barge with "white gas" what ever the **** that was. i remember gassing up at the whitestone marina and one time in manhasset bay at the gulf gas barge
anyone else wanna relate a yarn on there first saltwater fishing experences as related to boating or how screwed up the dads are when you went fishing as a kid?
dino
