Friends of Tony Albanese Gallery

Friends of Tony Gallery

Kayak Story

The move we made in 1963 to Whittier is where this story will begin. This is my earliest memory I have where this part of my life I would start taking things apart. Bicycles, lawn mowers, cars and anything that I found interesting, I always seemed to find the tools I needed to take apart what I had in my hands at the time.
Tony's First Hand-Built Kayak

My dad had purchased a tool set with wrenches and some sockets that I have to this day. I really don't know what drove me to take anything apart. There seemed to be interest in how things worked. Usually the stuff I dissembled would end up not going back together, although I did get a good look as to how these parts were once an assembly helping me understand how they worked. As time went I would learn how to reassemble the components and have it working once again.

At the age of about 11 I was in the sixth grade and in the Boy Scouts I would get the magazine Boys Life, in one of the issues was a kayak that could be built from plans you could send away for. After receiving the plans in the mail my dad and I were at the local lumberyard, Sacket and Peters, buying the lumber needed to build the 18-foot kayak. The basic construction was a wood frame covered in canvas, the same canvas used to paint pictures on. We used fir; a common wood, for the frame and then covered it with the canvas. Once I had the frame covered with the canvas using small tacks, I painted dope on the canvas to stiffen and make it ready for paint. After we selected the color we had it painted in a greenish turquoise color.

It wasn't long the kayak was finished and it was the beginning of summer and school was out. My parents decided to travel up to Seattle to visit my uncle where he had a cabin at a little lake where the kayak would stay. In the picture are cousins John and Marsha on the right, and me (wearing cut-off jeans) and my brother Steve (holding the stick) are on the left.

I forgot to say how we got the 18-foot kayak there; it was strapped to the roof on my parent's station wagon. The kayak survived the 1200-mile trip with no problems.

Whether by Water, Wheels or Wings ... Life Is A Journey, Not A Destination.