To generations of small boys, Huckleberry Finn and Jim symbolized freedom and adventures as they drifted south on the mighty Mississippi River.
From the time my sons, David, Michel and Joshua, were very young, I had promised them an adventure every year. They had been flying, rubber boating, canoeing, chasing wild horses, SCUBA diving, motorcycling. . . Life, I stressed, is to be lived with vigor.
“Let’s float on a raft this summer,” David and Michael clamored as the school year ended when they were 11 and 9.
Why not?
They and their friend David McCracken, the son of my partner Bill when I worked Police Homicide, helped me build a “yacht” that consisted of an 8×10 plywood deck mounted on three Styrofoam pontoons. A canvas sheet erected over the deck served as a shelter. The boy promptly dubbed her Huck Finn.
“You are floating down the Mississippi on that?” was how skeptical friends expressed their doubt.
Together for the summer, the boys and I floated the Mississippi River from the Greenville Bridge in Arkansas to Vicksburg, Mississippi. With no power other than oars, taking our leisure to skinny dip, sunbath, fish, and explore mysterious islands for pirate treasure.
In places the river yawns out to a mile wide and is gentle and slow. In other places, it narrows and deepens and crashes between high muddy walls and skids around sandbars. Some days we struggled to log five miles. Others, we easily floated thirty.
When we moored at night, sleeping arrangements consisted of a foam pad spread on the deck with sheets and blankets. One night, a passing tug crashed a six-foot wake over the raft, drenching awake four sleeping rafters and our bedding.
Dining fare consisted of canned goods, potatoes and dry cereal. Catfish we caught provided a welcome respite.
Sights and sounds of the Mississippi: ducks fast winging against a cloudy sky; rain pattering on white sand; tugboats hooting mournfully in the night; sleeping beneath stars as hard and bright as jewels and chatting about God and space travel and future adventures; brown waters rushing; standing on the highbrow of a lonely green island and gazing downriver; rapids of foam leaping over jetties; incredibly glorious sunsets and pastel sunrises. . .
After logging more than 150 river miles, we put ashore with regret at Vicksburg. Three little boys had experienced the romance of floating the Father of Waters just like Huck Finn. Adventure helps install confidence and imagination into young minds.
Six: End Game by Charles W. Sasser is the second in the continuing novelization of the hit new TV History Channel drama series, SIX, featuring the Navy SEALs combating terrorism. It is now available at most book stores, along with the first in the series, SIX: Blood Brothers, and at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Great blog Charles, although my father was always present growing up, those times I shared with him camping, float trips,the weather we sometimes challenged and the planning of the trips were the most vivid in my memories of growing up. So correct you are that it helps install confidence and imagination into young minds.
Morning John: You had a good papa. Thank you for your comment. chuck sasser
I wonder if your boys are as generous with their time spent on their children as you were with them? What a great story!
Morning, Sally. Always good to hear from you. Fortunately, my sons grew up to be good men–one is an MD, the other editor of the daily newspaper in Minot, N.D., and the third has a degree in theology and is Chief of Security at a prison. Joshua, the youngest son is the only one with kids, a boy, and Joshua indeed dotes on him. chucksasser
I could fee the tug of a big cat on your line. Great story.
Ah, Yeah, Jim. It was indeed a good summer, almost as good as when I took them to the Island of Dominica off Venezuela to SCUBA. I’ll hve to write that story sometime. See you at OWFI in a month, old friend.
chuck sasser
One Saturday morning a friend dropped my two children (daughter 4, son 6) upstream on the Illinois River in a rubber raft with one paddle. The Lutheran Church Camp rescued us off the river at 9:00 that night and drove us back to our car. The next morning my son was ready to go again, but his sister and I were wiped out. He was so upset. “I live with a couple of sissies!”
Still I’d love to have gone on the trip you describe. How long did it take?
Morning, Carol. We were on the river 2-3 weeks. And I’ll bet your son was ready to go again. So you guys were stranded on the river until nightfall? Isuppose your son would have been content to camp andbuild a fire?
chuck sasser
At 16 two friends and I decided to build a raft to float on out at Keystone. Not knowing anything about building one, we only had wood. Final assembly was about 6′ x 9′. We strapped it to the top of my 1956 Dodge Station wagon and took off. With all three of us on it, it floated about 1′ under water but was still fun as we were at the lake to get wet. Unfortunately that was our only experience as on the way home coming down Highway 51 about 5 miles East of the road over the dam, the ropes broke and that raft turned into a better plane than a raft. I looked in the mirror and I bet it went at least 30′ high before crashing back down in the middle of the road. Luckily the closest car was over 1/2 mile behind me. We went back gathered up the pieces and decided that there were not any big enough to rebuild from. Great fun.
Morning, Joe. You should have put wings on it intead and flew it, you think? Have a wonderful spring–and good to hear from you. chuck sasser
My Bien Amigo Chuck,
Many years from now when Saint Peter has found your name on the calendar that God keeps secret, I expect to to see writen: “Charles W. Sasser—He lived life with a capital L.”
—Jim
Awww, thanks, Jim. That’s one of the grandest things anyone has made about me. God bless me,and I sure hope God sees it the same way. chuck sasser
I loved Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fenn. My dad took the family to Hannibal, Missouri at my request when I was 11. The was as adventurous as we got on our way to California from Indiana on a three week road trip. That was an adventure for us. We didn’t eat in a restaurant the whole time. The Mississippi holds a special place in my heart because of those books.