Even though my brother loved digging in the sand and I loved the water, we always played together when we had the RC boat with us. That ship was special! It was made of wood with a white hull with sky blue trim and a real teak floor. It was highly detailed down to the chrome studs, studs, and flagpole.
On one particular trip to the lake, there were other children who also wanted to play with the boat.
My brother, who had a bit of mischievousness in him, made the boat go into deep water so that the other children couldn’t reach it. The lake, called Mauthe Lake, was a relatively small lake, I’d guess around 20 acres, so there were never any real waves to worry about and the boat went on and on. The other kids pushed and pushed him because he didn’t want to share.
Inevitably, the RC boat batteries died of course. Oh! The boat was defenseless and in the middle of the lake. The wind blew him over to the opposite bank and into the brush near the horse trails.
The other kids teased and teased my brother for his short-term thinking. (I have to admit I was secretly laughing at him too.) My God, Dad was going to be mad if we didn’t get that boat home!
Since mom used to tell us that she was a great swimmer, we asked her to rescue the boat. But, no amount of pleading made her swim after that boat. I didn’t know how to swim to get it back either, she was too young.
By this time, all the other parents and children were looking at the lake in the inoperable RC boat and trying to figure out what to do.
Meanwhile, across the lake, some horsemen appeared. We all started yelling, jumping and pointing. I’m not sure they saw or heard us, but they did see our ship! 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 circled the lake to our beach, they returned the boat to our mother. She promptly put it in the trunk of our ’57 Chevy. Unfortunately, we never saw that ship again. I sure would like to know what happened to him.
I went back to playing in the water. My brother, along with his former adversaries (now best friends of his) started building sand castles.