Yesterday was Oldest's first day of summer school, with driver's ed being the first thing up. Things move quickly in summer school, apparently. She now has a boat operator's license.
Huh!?
I was assaulted by a jabbering brood of children when I got to Grandmom's yesterday, and they kept telling me Ashley got her boat license, which I ignored because the only thing she knows about boats is that they float. But, sure enough, as part of the course of instruction, they also have to get instructions necessary to receive a boat license. How very, very odd.
All through my young growing up years, my dad and I had a variety of runabouts and speedboats, the last being an 18 foot Tahiti jet with a 450 horse 454 Chevy in the stern. It was loud as a NASCAR stocker (open headers, don't you know) and was fast in a highly entertaining and frightening way, but for a 15 or 16 year old kid, it was certainly a blast to play with.
Now after my dad died back in '84, I never really felt the pull of the water again, and I was in college and still had another four years to go, so the boat was sold and that was it. After college, there was the job, and then marriage, and various other things, but never really any interest in getting another boat. (Except for my retirement dream of buying a restored steam tug, but that's another story.)
But the point is, when I was growing up, kids could get in a boat and go anywhere--the operator's license requirements didn't come along until the '90s. Even though from my youngest days--even before I could legally operate a car--I have been at the helm of various watercraft that were the aquatic equivalent of the stuff you see in The Fast and the Furious, I had never had a boat license. And when the license requirements did come in, I never really felt that compelled to get one, seeing as how I don't have a boat or anything.
But now, by virtue of one day-long class, my 15 year old daughter, whose only boating experience was riding the Dauphin Island ferry, can now legally operate a craft on the waterways of our great state--any kind of boat--and I can't.
It is a very strange world.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 08:54 AMI grew up in South Florida and spent most weekends in the Florida Keys operating power and sail boats of all sorts. Now requirement to have a license in a state that could make millions, perhaps billions, on a new license requirement.
Then I move here. No boat, no need for a license. However, when I went to take the test for the motorcycle license I figured I would pay the $5 and take the boating test (without studying of course).
I passed. I still don't own a boat, but I am license to operate on in Alabama!
Posted by: HemisphereDancer at June 7, 2005 10:35 AMMaybe the state actually knows what it is doing. That is if your boat sheds the same way as your lawnmower.
BTW the use of the word shed in the last sentence is in no way to be used as a noun—and not to imply that indeed you have a shed.
Because I don't. It's merely a child's playhouse, currently being used to store tools and shedding lawnmowers.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 01:47 PMHe said shedding—I’m going to the homeowners council—My property and aesthetic values are dropping.
Posted by: jim at June 7, 2005 01:58 PMSo you don't even have to show any actual competance (other than a written test, which shows nothing) or even get near a boat to get a boating license? Now that isn't just another blatant attempt to get a new source of revenue, is it?
Posted by: Jordana at June 7, 2005 02:04 PMYou people are so cynical. Clearly, "it’s for the children" and apparently so are the licenses.
Posted by: jim at June 7, 2005 02:07 PMI agree--I mean, we did without licenses up until the mid-'90s or whenever. Kids--rightly or wrongly--have had much easier access to boats for as long as I can remember. A friend of mine and I used to go all over Smith Lake in an outboard and we were only 13 or 14.
I think the whole thing might just another way to say you're regulating something without really doing anything. It's a way to getcha if you're out without a license, but a license doesn't connote competence. You'd figure if they were going to do it, they'd do it right. Then you'd realize where you are, and just sort of sigh and go on with life.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 02:26 PMIt's also that same sort of thing about having your picture on your driver's licence. We didn't get those until the mid '70s or so. Everyone seemed to do fine up until then. And it's rather odd that I'm required to have a photo on my driver's license, but my pistol permit is just a slip of cardboard.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 02:29 PMAnd I never said shed.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 02:34 PM