Thanksgiving

 

This year Susie and I celebrated Thanksgiving with Mike and family at their place on Lake Houston. Thanksgiving dinner included besides both our granddaughter; nephew Mikel and his daughter Aurora along with a couple of Mike and Adrin’s retired widower neighbors. Good company, good food and engaging conversation, a lovely Thanksgiving. 

The reason I write this now is I had a chance to once more indulge in an old tradition and it stirred up so old memories from years ago.

Since the late 1990’s a men’s group that I’m a member of has gone down to a local men’s half way house Thanksgiving morning to donate clothing and to meet with the residents and still be back home early afternoon for family activities. The half way house was in the Montrose area more or less in the shadow of downtown Houston. After the area gentrified the ramshackle place was sold for a princely sum and they moved out to the Spring Branch area where they still operate today.

In those earlier days it was also my traditional last paddle of the season. After meeting at the halfway house I’d drive down to Eleanor Tinsley Park a few blocks away on Allen Parkway and launch my little 14’ solo canoe in Buffalo Bayou and paddle down the confluence of White Oak  Bayou in downtown Houston and then back to Eleanor Tinsley Park. It was a nice little paddle with the contrast of a fairly natural setting wandering through the maze of columns supporting the many lanes of freeway above. The only hassle was the long carry back up the hill from the bayou to the parking lot.

One Thanksgiving a few years into the deal we’d had a little rain a few days before. When I got to the bayou, looked at the current which was a little stronger than normal and thought “I can do this” by hugging the shore on the inside of the bends. So off I went, nice quick paddle. After turning around at White Oak Bayou and paddling back upstream I realized I was in trouble. There were some straight sections with enough current to both shores that I couldn’t make headway and no easy way to beach the canoe and portage in an urban jungle.

So I decided to beach the boat close to White Oak Bayou, hide the canoe and hike back to the truck then drive down and pick up the canoe.  I pulled out near the Riesner Street Police Station and asked an officer I saw there if it was OK to leave my canoe under a bridge abutment and go get my truck. He said no problem.

I had doing this for several years and it had never occurred to me that there were a number of activities that transpired in downtown Houston on Thanksgiving. A parade, along with a festival with all sorts of concessions, bands and people packed curb to curb on the closed downtown streets for the holiday. I was attired in my customary paddling outfit; worn out sneakers, ragged cut off jean shorts, short sleeve shirt of similar vintage covered mostly by a really sun faded kapok style lifejacket. I was carrying a homemade double blade paddle in my gloved hands. 

There were a few comments from the throng like “mister you’ve lost your boat” and a lot of nudging followed by look at that stares. But what I remember most was how the crowd parted to let me pass. I never had to stop or ask for some clearance. I just walked at a regular unhurried pace carrying my paddle vertically or sometimes at a slight slant, made eye contact at times as I smiled and walked on.  Once past the crowds and hiking along Allen Parkway I had time to reflect about my single minded pursuit of my boating activity that excluded anything outside my own personal interest.

In subsequent years I lost some of the self centered blindness and became more aware of the rest of the world around me but have never lost the passion for small boats, their design, construction and use. As I write this QB waits patiently under cover at the shop next to our winterized powerboat until I can do a little remediation and improvements once the holidays are over. In the meanwhile Xmas is upon us, family is coming here to celebrate, I’ve got one present to finish making and various tasks to do as Susie dictates. Life is good.