I’m talking boats, of course. My first boat many decades ago was a 12-foot aluminum pram. It weighed about 35 pounds. I could easily slide it into the back of my station wagon and take it anywhere. On many opening days of trout season, I would drive to a stocked pond in Stokes State Forest, put that pram in the water and always catch my limit of rainbows. My secret weapon bait was fresh beef liver. Hatchery trout just loved it.

A few years later, I discovered canoes, those silent, graceful craft that, like my pram, could go anywhere.