Offshore Explorer with Scott Dodgson

My First Crossing

Episode Summary

My First Crossing. At seventeen and with some experience I convince a beautiful model and her father that she should cross Lake Erie with me on my sailboat Steppenwolf. Advice on "Knowing Thyself" helped me win the girl and provided a valuable life lesson during an especially turbulent time.

Episode Notes

Turbulent is how I would describe my teen years. I started down one path, going to college with all the uncertainty and trepidation leaving home trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life unaware I would do a lot of different things before I finished. In fact, I’m still doing different things. 

Few have you probably aren’t old enough to remember the draft as a participant. The draft was the Damocles sword hanging over every male who was 18 years old. Nixon had dropped all the draft deferments like going to college or and I’m half joking here being rich and white. 

At eighteen I was faced with an important decision. Did I love my country enough to die for it? 

The counterculture was roaring. Four dead in Ohio just happened. I knew at least five guys who had gone to Vietnam and two were killed. 

My friends were in a band. I am not musical in any way, but I love music and I am married to a great musician. And I mean great Paulette McWilliams. I added a link to her new album A Woman’s Story. We all talked about if we were drafted, we would go to Canada. Canada was just across Lake Erie from us in Bay Village Ohio. 

You are a sailor.

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