"messing about in boats"; how right Kenneth Grahame was. It's hard to imagine a better way for a child to learn that he is responsible for his own actions. Row down-wind and it's a long way home. Horse around and you have to find a way to right the boat and row home wet. A little older and you learn to take a peek in the gas tank before setting out.
There were my four male cousins, two to six years older than myself (and my little sister and two more cousins - the "little girls"), (and another, even younger), plus several other kids our age from the small string of cottages along the Doty Highway (our watery "street"). In the '40s and '50s that was a big enough neighborhood for me.
With life-jackets the rule, we were allowed to
go anywhere our arms would take us. Five
youngsters on two pair of oars could really
make a duckboat
fly -- for a while. Measuring
it out on a chart today, I can see that we made
excursions to at least a distance of four miles
from the Doty. I remember going to the Steamer
Channel to watch the freighters go up and down
and that is at least that far.
Now, you have to realize that in those days the passage of another boat within sight or hearing of the cottage was rare enough to bring everyone out to look -- even the adults. We weren't in a lot of danger of being run down, and most of those boats were displacement-type like my grandfather's Teal and not able to go more than 5-10 MPH. How different it is today.