• @[email protected]
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    2111 hours ago

    At the height of being poor in like '83 or so (mortgage rates to 17%; just ponder that) we panick-moved to a smaller town with a union job but found a fixer house with an attached shop.

    Dad, ever the salesman and skilled labourer, would do work for people in exchange for wood-working tools: Old window Jenkins would part with Lester’s Table Saw if Dad re-tiled the shower.

    So we got tools. And he traded for plywood and plans. And suddenly we had a dory he could fit on top of this '75 econoline150 van. And fishing was great. But it was a lot of rowing this pig of a boat.

    So he modded it with a dagger-board and a mast port. Took him 5 min to rig it and he was set for fishing.

    Those summers camping because we couldn’t afford to do anything else but at least gas was cheap, they were awesome.

    I think these people just have shiny boats, which are too expensive. If you want to find them, they’re finishing the Penske file so they can still afford exorbitant Slip fees and dream of Taking the Boat Out with the estranged family members who will then love Dad again and make up for all this toil. Dude needs a cheap ugly van and a wallowing pig of a dory to ‘sail’ around a lake in the woods; aim smaller and actually go make memories.

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      7 hours ago

      At the height of being poor in like '83 or so (mortgage rates to 17%; just ponder that)

      FWIW A mortgage payment at 17% interest on the $20,000 my parents paid for my childhood three bedder in 1980 was cheaper than a single mortgage payment i make today.