Bug Dope

I have been thinking about my first crush recently. No, not my first girlfriend. My first boat. Every sailor has a first that he’ll remember all his life. There will always be a spot in my heart for the Rangely boat. I sported around in one summer in Maine when I was young, Seventeen feet long, with a square transom and a small gas engine. She was painted green with wooden ribs and sweet lines. A stable boat, I could use a paddle as a tiller extension on the motor handle and stand amidships like I was the master of the lake.
Eventually, the interlude ended, and I had to return to work. But I always remembered those days of exploration.

Many years went by. I was at a boat show in Portland, Maine, and taking a bathroom break, and “yawn” break away from my booth. A friend was in my booth for a while, so I decided to “walk the show.” As I turned a corner, there she was—all renewed and pristine in every way but one. It was like a prophecy come true. We were reunited after years.
There she sat on saw horses, green paint glowing, all slick seventeen feet of her, beautifully restored – just as I remembered her from some forty years ago. Except for one thing. The specific redolent odor of “Old Woodsman.” Old Woodsman was a bug dope. In the day we used it as you might use deet, Off, or other bug repellant. But Old Woodsman repelled people, too, with its penetrative odor. After days or a week at camp or hiking, you needed several showers to eliminate all the smell. You’ll have to wash your clothes multiple times, too.

I approached the young people standing by her. They had restored the Rangely boat as part of an apprenticeship program. While complimenting them on the restoration and a bit possessively running my hands along her sides, I asked about the smell. They told me that it had persisted throughout the restoration process. To smell so thoroughly of bug dope all these years later, someone must have spilled a gallon or more of the stuff on her.

Her owner will have no problems with the black flies.