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So There

The usual group of half-dozen elderly former Dispro owners was gathered at the government dock at Pointe-au-Baril station. The recently-arrived flotilla of four restored Dispros was taking on extra supplies for an extended voyage on Georgian Bay and, while the various tins of beans were being carefully stowed away in the respective bilges, the misty-eyed onlookers regaled the voyageurs with tales of untold happy hours spent so long ago, cruising the 30,000 islands.

One old codger stood listening in the background, but did not come forward until the others had departed. He had once owned a Dippy too, he said, and remembered it very well. And, like the others, he had had one particularly happy experience concerning the boat that he wanted to relate.

"The very best thing I ever did with my Dippy happened the day I bought my new bulldozer," he recalled. "I pulled that boat up on the shore and ran the bulldozer back and forth over it dozens of times until there was absolutely nothing left of it. I don't think I've ever enjoyed anything quite as much as getting back at that cursed Dispro for all the dirty tricks it pulled on me!"

...compiled by Paul Dodington