As soon as my concussion was healed (some say it never was) we took the boat out for a try at water skiing. The boat was game, but the forty horse motor was insufficient to get me up on skis, my ex popped right up being eighty pounds lighter, but something had to be done. That something happened the next weekend. Bill Priddy, one of my old West University friends, worked with me and invited us to go water skiing in Lake Houston with him and his date.

We showed up on time, but Bill and his date and Norman Shelter and his date were sitting in the boat. Wouldn’t six be too many, I thought as we loaded up everything? Bill’s boat, a sixteen foot Falcon, fiberglass, with lap strake sides and packing a sixty-five horse, Johnson turned out to be a skiing delight. A little strained for getting me up with the crowd aboard, but nice.

It was dead calm as I finally cleared the water and began skiing, nice conditions, flat water, no wind and the thought came to me, Why am I being pulled behind this boat when twenty miles from here I could be fishing for trout in Trinity Bay? The thought nagged at me, but wore off as the morning wore on.

While Norman was skiing, we noticed a cloud building up over the south end of the lake and soon, pop-crak, thunder, as the lightning hit. We quickly picked up Norman, headed for the launch ramp and were all thinking, That was too close. Before we got the boat loaded, here came the rain and more lightning. Very exciting, but anyway, we were already all wet!

We decided to wait this storm out and sitting in Bill’s car he thought out loud, “I’m going to get rid of this boat and stick with bass fishing.” The boat seemed to be just what I was looking for, a bigger boat with more horsepower and within two weeks, I’d sold my new (used) one and bought Bill’s for $900.00.

We used the boat for skiing, some, but, for the next three years, it became my first real, fishing boat.