Larry wrote:
Vic Smith wrote in
:


"An 81-year old angler lost his life when he capsized his 12-foot
rowboat. The likely course of events is that the victim was anchored,
fishing and got his lure hooked into his anchor line. He attempted to
remove the lure's hook form the anchor line, untying the anchor.



When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was driving my state-park-green
12' wooden rowboat with the 1HP Elto outboard across Owasco Lake in the
Finger Lakes of upstate NY, the reason I don't remember, probably because
my Grandpa's gas was free...(c;

I saw an old man with white hair, like mine is now, leaning against his
outboard motor, looking just awful and panting like a dog. I steered
towards him and asked him if he was ok.

"I can't get my motor started. I've pulled and pulled.", he said. I
offered to tow him to his dock on the other side of the lake. To this
day, I think I saved his life. He had oars, but I doubt he'd have lasted
to get home.

Once we got to his dock, I hung around to see if we could figure out how
to get his motor to run, a pesky kid I was. I was a hero a second time
when I asked him why the spark plug wire was pulled off the spark plug
under the little gas tank. We put it back and it cranked right up....(c;
I was also a smartassed kid, but that was another matter.... He said he
had pulled the motor up while he was fishing to keep it out of the weeds
and probably pulled the wire off with his hand lifting the handle on the
back of the gas tank. His wife called my grandparents to say I'd be
having lunch with them and what happened so they wouldn't worry.....

Larry


You'll be an interesting case for St. Peter when your time comes.
He'll be hard pressed trying to weigh your good deeds against your
'other activities' to see if you get a pass or not.