Those folks grew up with boats as a necessity, not a toy.Wifey B; said:So many of you in olden days, in some form of boat related to commercial fishing or logging or other things, in small boats...Different worlds.
The tragedy is when you allow those things to cripple you for life. A friend of 72 doesn't swim a lick but every summer for the past 20 years of travel up the BC coast has donned a life jacket daily and jumped in for a thrash around.; said:He wasn't allowed near the water since he didn't know how to swim. Her first time was when she was young...there was a tragedy. Neither of them ever got on a boat again and still worry about us every time we do. They won't get in a pool either.
I saw my first floater at age 4, pulled from under a log boom with a pike pole and left on the float until an available boat could transport him to the morgue in Alert Bay. As vivid a memory and part of life as the old Easthope gillnetters.