Member Spotlight -

Greg Benson

My childhood really was a paradise for a kid growing up in Minnesota. I grew up in New Ulm, but in August of 1953 my grandfather bought a cabin on Lake Sylvia near Annandale, Minnesota that changed my life forever. That following Christmas Grandma bought Grandpa a 1953 Thompson Tomboy. The summer of 1954 is where it all started. We had the Thompson with a 25 horse Johnson and a 12’ Alumacraft fishing boat with a 5 horse Johnson. Well, I was only five then and didn’t see much action driving those boats, but I learned to aquaplane or surfboard, as we use to call it. That was the beginning of my water sports.

Early on we would spend a couple of weeks at a time at the lake and Grandpa and Dad would come up on the weekends. It was about a 72-mile trip from New Ulm. When I look back at my childhood, I remember practically nothing about summers in New Ulm. By the end of sixth grade we spent the whole summer at the lake. It was school for nine months, and fun in the sun for three months. I can’t remember at what age I was aloud to row the alumacraft, but I do remember asking Grandma about every five minutes if I could go “oaring in the fishing boat.” You couldn’t beat a glass day on the water rowing in the lily-pads looking for fish and underwater creatures.

I bet I was eight or nine when Dad let me drive the 5 horse on start, and maybe a year later full speed. That’s when I really started exploring the lake and meeting friends from one end to the other. I can’t believe it, but by the time I was ten or eleven, I was driving the Thompson and skiing with my buddies. My older brother Dave was my driver for many years, but was about to go on strike when I almost flipped the Thompson over slalom water skiing.

It was 1961. My grandpa had died in ‘57 and my dad had decided it was time for a bigger boat. My Dad heard about a write-in bid on an old shore patrol boat on Lake Minnetonka that once belonged to Governor Youngdahl. It was a 1949 Chris Craft Sportsman. He bid $1,275 and won by $75. We sold the Thompson to a farmer in Hanska, Minnesota and had the Chris Craft on the water by August.
I was 12 at the time and that was a big boat. I couldn’t see over the nose completely. To this day, I can’t believe my Dad let me drive that boat all by myself, even during the week when he was home in New Ulm. We had a lot more responsibility as children then. I don’t think my dad ever got as good as I did driving the Chris Craft. One time he was coming into the dock, one arm on the steering wheel, and he hit the throttle accidentally, and ran into our railroad tie wall splitting the cutwater right down the middle.

We had the Chris Craft until 1969. I had put many hours on that boat burning 50 to sometimes 100 gallons of gas a week skiing, racing, exploring or just cruising in the early morning with a cup of coffee. By then I was 20 and going to college. I had acquired a taste for coffee and developed a love for that soft throaty rumble of a Chris Craft puttin’ down the lake. Unfortunately, the motor developed a cracked block and the boat was becoming a maintenance problem. We didn’t think too wisely at the time and decided to dump the boat. We sold the boat to Greenwood Marina for $100. I had finished two years of college and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. By the end of that year, I was in the Navy.

By the summer of 1970, I went off the deep end and bought a 16 foot Sidewinder (fiberglass) ski boat with 115 Evinrude. We didn’t have a speedboat at the cabin and I wanted one when I came home on leave. Even being in the Navy, I managed many weekends home in the summer, and most of my four weeks of leave too.

After the Navy in 1974, I finished college at St. Cloud State and spent most of my time at the cabin, only 20 miles away, living the life I remembered as a child. My mother and grandma were still coming up for the whole summer and catering to my needs and whims. My parents had been divorced for eight years by then, and I had been overseeing the cabin with my brother. Life was good again with the Vietnam War over and my service obligation done. The Sidewinder came in handy because a bunch of my college buddies from Lake Sylvia had started a ski club and we were putting on shows all over central Minnesota.

In 1977 I bought a Mastercraft ski boat with a 351 Ford with exhaust pipes! I was so excited about owning an inboard again, I drove all the way to Tennessee to pick it up! When I first ran it, I was so disappointed. That year was the first year they installed water mufflers and it was too quiet for me. But I grew to love that softer sound so much, I’m even contemplating putting water mufflers on my Chris Craft! I think that might be a no-no in the classic boating world we live in today!

By 1977 I graduated from college and got a job. By ‘79 I got married to my wife Debbie, bought a house, had five jobs, and by June of 1980, became a father. Something had to give or go! It was the Mastercraft. We needed the money to buy a reliable second car. For the first time in my life I was without a boat, except for our Kayat pontoon. It was four years before we could even think about buying a boat. I had gone to some of our chapter’s shows on Lake Minnetonka, and the old wood boat fever started to kick in. I could feel it in my bones!

In the spring of 1985, I started looking. I was crazy about Chris Crafts, but I also had a heart for Centurys (believe it or not Ron Goette!) As a child, grandpa and grandma used to take my brother and I to Gull Lake for a week to visit their friends. Down the shoreline from them were the Bush’s from Iowa. They had two daughters, Suzie and Mimmzie, about my brother’s and my age, As Steve Martin used to say: “They were foxes!” We were nuts about them, but we were also nuts about their boat -- a Century Coronado with a sliding roof, 18 coats of varnish and exhaust pipes!

I had looked at many Centurys, Chris Crafts, and boats I never heard of, and the prices were affordable for us at the time. I wasn’t crazy about the labor that would be involved, but my heart was leading the way and I couldn’t stop it! We bought a 1956 Higgins that year for $1300. One of my friends from Lake Sylvia, Bing Johnson, had a ‘57 Higgins. At the time, he had the fastest and coolest boat on the lake and the coolest name. It took about five years, $4,000, and a lot of calls to boat club members to finish the boat. Named “My Higgi,” it made it to the 1990 show on a trailer, bad transmission, and to the ‘91 and ‘92 shows in the water. It was also our recreational boat. We used it many times exploring lakes and rivers and taking Meagan and Christopher skiing on Prior Lake.

In 1993, “My Higgi” was sold to a former Higgins dealer from Spokane Washington for $5,500. Why, you might ask. Because I was already working on my 1955 Chris Craft Capri and needed the capital. A Minnetonka boat from day one, I had found it on a farm in Watertown in 1991 for $1,800. It was going to cost me a fortune before I got done! It took many years and lot of dollars to finish the Capri.

Through the 90’s I’ve watched my children grow up and spend time on the water at many different lakes. We sold our cabin in 1988, but still spent many years up there renting the cabin back from the new owners. Many of my skiing and college friends still spend their summers at Sylvia. My father-in-law has had two cabins in Wisconsin. My cousins are up on the Cross Lake chain. Some of my best friends from Lake Sylvia are in the Alexandria area. By the time I was finishing my second and last term as President of BSLOL my Capri, “Rapturous Delight,” made it to the 2000 show on a trailer again. At the 2001 show “Rapturous Delight” was finally running full throttle and won Best Professional Restoration.

For some dozen years or so I’ve been a member of ACBS and at times, without a working boat in the water. Membership started out as a need to have a connection with somebody that knew what to do with these old wood boats and where to go to find help. For my family and me, it has grown into so much more then I could have ever imagined! Volunteering to help this organization has opened doors for us to meet some of the greatest people I know! After seven years on the Board of Directors for BSLOL, I still can’t quit!

I’m getting close to retirement now and my wife, Debbie, and I spend as much time as we can on Lake Vermillion with some of our closest friends. As my grandma use to say, “God willing”, I hope to spend many more years puttn’ down a lake or river enjoying the beauty of nature, sippin’ a cup of coffee, and listening to the sweet sound of those pipes!