The West Point Ringer thread reminded me....is their anything more assured of in life than seeing some of the greatest moments in man's history than spending a few minutes around a boat ramp???
Seriously...for absolutely free you can go to any boat ramp in the nation and watch otherwise sane folks completely lose their minds, watch families that were as happy as they had ever been just minutes earlier start divorce proceedings and cussing their kids and kicking their dogs, cars, trailers, boats all disspearing, not to mention the property that will be destroyed if you stay long enough. It is one of my favorite past times! Every boat owner has stories about other folks and most of us have ones about our own meltdowns. I personally am quick to relay the former but loathe to share the latter 'cause I am bent that way. Anyone got a good one?
I have several but one that comes to mind took place about this time of year about 35 years ago when I was a young man and not altogether familiar with the drama and comedy on display at boat ramps.
It was Sunny Point Access on West Point, crappie jumping in the boat and every boat owner within 300 miles putting in or taking out all day long. Old boy pulls up with a brand new procraft bass boat...no registration, no trailer tag....probably took delivery the night before...and his wife heads up the dock to get the truck. Apparently she had never backed a trailer down a ramp or anywhere for that matter because there was 2 ramps there at the time and she was making use of both of them at the same time. Needless to say old boy was already out on the lake waiting so some well meaning gents offered her some advice. This was a good looking woman. In stress. A southern gentleman is going to step in under those conditions. Old boy notices that about 35 men are helping his pretty wife and gets back to the dock, ties up, and commences to tell her how to back down the ramp. This did not go well as anyone can imagine. They soon began to discuss, at a loud volume, what kind of idiot couldn't back up a trailer and what kind of idiot couldn't refrain from cussing their wife like that in public. When they get to talking about one another's family tree she finally had enough, jumps out of the truck, and heads god knows where on foot. She did put the truck in park, speaking to her ability to remain sensible when no doubt wathcing that old boy's truck disappear under the surface would have suited her current mood.
Old boy takes off after her until about 2/3s of the 7000 other people there trying to use the ramp suggest he get his truck out of the way first because she ain't getting far on foot. He hears this and decides he is going to get the boat out himself, to heck with her! He does an admirable job of backing the trailer in....calmly walks to his boat, unties it, cranks it, idols out past the no wake bouy....and showers down on it! He goes about 1/2 mile down the lake, turns it hard over, and here he comes back to the ramp, running about 70 and showing no sign of slowing down. He gets off the throttle at about the no wake bouy and coasts up the trailer at about 40 MPH....hits the trailer stem, shears it right off and proceeds to place the trolling motor and bow almost completely into the bed of his truck.
He is sho enough mad now. He gets out, looks the situation over,,,,and pulls out with that boat half on the truck and half on the trailer. About that time someone mentions that his wife is on the bridge watching all of this. He turns right out of the parking lot....and while we can't hear them at that point she eventually opens the door, gets in, and they proceed wherever they were headed with that boat still sitting mostly in the bed of that truck! You can't buy a ticket for that kind of spectacle at any price!
Seriously...for absolutely free you can go to any boat ramp in the nation and watch otherwise sane folks completely lose their minds, watch families that were as happy as they had ever been just minutes earlier start divorce proceedings and cussing their kids and kicking their dogs, cars, trailers, boats all disspearing, not to mention the property that will be destroyed if you stay long enough. It is one of my favorite past times! Every boat owner has stories about other folks and most of us have ones about our own meltdowns. I personally am quick to relay the former but loathe to share the latter 'cause I am bent that way. Anyone got a good one?
I have several but one that comes to mind took place about this time of year about 35 years ago when I was a young man and not altogether familiar with the drama and comedy on display at boat ramps.
It was Sunny Point Access on West Point, crappie jumping in the boat and every boat owner within 300 miles putting in or taking out all day long. Old boy pulls up with a brand new procraft bass boat...no registration, no trailer tag....probably took delivery the night before...and his wife heads up the dock to get the truck. Apparently she had never backed a trailer down a ramp or anywhere for that matter because there was 2 ramps there at the time and she was making use of both of them at the same time. Needless to say old boy was already out on the lake waiting so some well meaning gents offered her some advice. This was a good looking woman. In stress. A southern gentleman is going to step in under those conditions. Old boy notices that about 35 men are helping his pretty wife and gets back to the dock, ties up, and commences to tell her how to back down the ramp. This did not go well as anyone can imagine. They soon began to discuss, at a loud volume, what kind of idiot couldn't back up a trailer and what kind of idiot couldn't refrain from cussing their wife like that in public. When they get to talking about one another's family tree she finally had enough, jumps out of the truck, and heads god knows where on foot. She did put the truck in park, speaking to her ability to remain sensible when no doubt wathcing that old boy's truck disappear under the surface would have suited her current mood.
Old boy takes off after her until about 2/3s of the 7000 other people there trying to use the ramp suggest he get his truck out of the way first because she ain't getting far on foot. He hears this and decides he is going to get the boat out himself, to heck with her! He does an admirable job of backing the trailer in....calmly walks to his boat, unties it, cranks it, idols out past the no wake bouy....and showers down on it! He goes about 1/2 mile down the lake, turns it hard over, and here he comes back to the ramp, running about 70 and showing no sign of slowing down. He gets off the throttle at about the no wake bouy and coasts up the trailer at about 40 MPH....hits the trailer stem, shears it right off and proceeds to place the trolling motor and bow almost completely into the bed of his truck.
He is sho enough mad now. He gets out, looks the situation over,,,,and pulls out with that boat half on the truck and half on the trailer. About that time someone mentions that his wife is on the bridge watching all of this. He turns right out of the parking lot....and while we can't hear them at that point she eventually opens the door, gets in, and they proceed wherever they were headed with that boat still sitting mostly in the bed of that truck! You can't buy a ticket for that kind of spectacle at any price!
