THE RIVER


It was rather cool on the river-bank. I had to slip on a windbreaker over my bathing suit and T-shirt to ward off the chill. I could smell the coffee beginning to brew over the campfire, where the guides and cooks were beginning to prepare breakfast for twenty-five hungry adults and eight hungry kids. In the quiet of the early Idaho morning, I could hear the rippling and burbling of the river as it flowed silkily by a few feet in front of me; and the first hint of light was just sufficient to allow me to see the juncture of the white sand with the edge of the cold water of the Snake River.

Evan, my 11 year old grandson, and I were on a weeklong raft trip, which had begun on the Salmon River the previous morning. It was a perfect time of year to make this trip, because it was such a pleasure to escape the terrible Texas heat in August. On the river, the water is rather cold, and the cold water helps keep the temperature of the ambient air quite pleasant. The previous day had been the first full day of our float trip and the ride had, by design, been pretty tame. One might say it was an orientation day, giving us a small taste of life on the river. The guides had taken a lot of time explaining the safety rules and assuring themselves that we knew what to hang on to and how to position ourselves in the raft when we hit rough water. Then, we got to practice as we traversed several gentle riffles and small waterfalls. We had ended our day on this sandbar, where the guides had erected our tents and cooked us a great meal. After a good night’s sleep I found myself sitting on the river bank, shivering and wondering what this day had in store for us.

Dawn came late because the sand bar, which the guides had chosen as the site for us to spend the night, was located in a deep canyon with sheer granite and limestone bluffs on either side. I woke early, as is my habit, and came down to the river’s edge to watch the world wake up. I had slept well that night. I had spread my sleeping bag out atop the sand and slept outside of my tent. I had intended to sleep inside the tent, but Evan had talked me into sleeping out with him, and it had been delightful. The sky was clear and the stars brilliant and magnificent, and there had been a nice cool breeze. The only problem that I had with that sleeping arrangement was getting up in the morning. When one first lays down on the sand, it feels nice and soft, but soon, it gets sort of hard and lumpy. 70 year old bones and joints, which are accustomed to a good smooth mattress, don’t tolerate all those things too well, and I was pretty stiff and sore that morning.

“Mornin’ Pa,” I heard from the top of the sand bar. I couldn’t believe that Evan was up already. When he stayed with us at home, I usually had to go roust him out of his bed when breakfast was ready, but that morning on the river, he surprised me. I was glad he was up because it was quiet and we were alone, and it would be a great time for the two of us to talk a little. One seldom gets the opportunity to really communicate with an eleven-year-old in a meaningful way, so I thought that this might be a good time to try getting his undivided attention.

“Hey, Evan,” I answered. “What’re you doing up so early? Come on down and sit with me a while. We’ve been so busy that we haven’t really had a lot of time to do any visiting.” Maybe we can chat a little, before everyone else gets up and we get going again with the day’s activities.”

I had been trying to think of something to talk to him about that would be interesting enough to him to hold his attention in the midst of all the activity here on the river, and I came up with an idea.

“You know, we have lived in totally different kinds of worlds, you and I. The world is so very different today from the way it was when I was you age, and I was thinking that you might like to hear about some of the things I did when I was a kid and what the world was like back in the 1930’s. I can tell you some stories about some things that will sound totally strange to you today. You might even learn something. This surely would be a great time and place to do it, out here on the river, because our lives are so busy that we seldom get time to just sit down and talk. What do you think?”

“Yeah, Pa, that sounds great,” he said with at least a little bit of enthusiasm. “I’ll bet things really were a lot different then,” he said, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“More different than you could ever know.” I said. “Okay then, that’s just what we’ll do. But, before we start, why don’t you go up there to the campfire and get us a cup of coffee to warm us up while we talk and watch the day break.”

“OK Pa,” he said, as he disappeared over the brim of the sand bar.

While he was gone, I began to remember how our trip began and the things we had done up to the present.