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| First Section Going Out |
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| Waiting for the pipes |
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| Jimio holding the Dock while Brad aligns it and Dadio getting ready to set the pipe |
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| Finished Dock |
Late Spring means putting out the dock. It was an all day affair and usually Dadio was so impatient we had to fite the urge from passing out due to our body temperature dropping so low due to the cold water. I may be exaggerating just a little but the water still felt pretty cold. The first 20 years we had these lead pipes you pounded in with a sludge-hammer. After pounding in 1 pipe I was done. Dadio and Brad did the rest. Missy and Mindy would hand us the hooks that connected the dock sections to the pipes. The next 20 years we bought these pipes that had screw threads on the bottom. They were easy. I wish they had come with the house 40 years ago! The dock sections were heavy and weighed around 100 pounds. We had 8 or 9 sections. I loved getting it done because that meant 3 months untill I had to worry about taking it out again. Docks are great. It's a place to tie up the rowboat, speedboat and raft. A place to hold the bucket of water and box of worms, to fish off of and to dive off of. To snorkle under and to feed fish by hand off of. A place to sit on and roll your jeans up and put your feet in the water. A place to take the cat Mai Ling out to and watch his claws shoot out. A place where our dog Muffin fell off into the water and dog-paddled back to shore. Even a place to play my trombone off of and to watch turtles race off of and dive in the water and go back to their Lily-Pads and Duckweeds. The dock served as a place to put our lawn chairs and watch the Bi-Centenial 1976 Fireworks on Gilletts Lake. That dock sure had a lot of great Summers.
