Your Boat Is Better With A Nice Johnson

As a city boy, I don't get to make recreational boating much of a part of my life. One of my best friends in college came from a rural area that was relatively close by, so we'd drive up to his family's house and bomb around in his boat. It was the first time I'd ever been in a boat with a steering wheel. The only other boating I'd ever really done was canoeing while camping, so the high-tech addition of a 25 year old Johnson outboard motor was a totally new experience for me. It also introduced me to a whole culture of lakeside people who use their motorboats to run errands as often as I might use a car. There was even a bar that you could only access by water, and we spent many a summer evening meeting boat people, downing beers and smelling the rotting bracken.

This old commercial for Johnson motors reminds me of the fun we had in that old boat. It makes me wish that perhaps one of these days life will lead me down a path where I'll be able to get my hands on a little boat of my own, and of course at the same time grab my own Johnson.

related:

An inflatable flying boat
"Tug Boat" board game
German version of classic game "Battleship"