Dawson / Bishop heritage (c1959)

I spent many summers with Wit Bishop on Prince Edward Island. This photo is taken at Lawrence and Cephina McHerron's house (Graham's Pond is in the background - McHerron's General Store would be across the pond, up the hill to the left of the photo). I loved this little boat (the punt - used for duck hunting by the owner) and would pester Wit to take me out in it - then freak out because I couldn't see the bottom of the pond. In this photo the fear won out. The water was black (like dark tea) because of the peat in it I guess, and covered in tiny milfoil leaves that the boat would part as it passed, leaving a trail on the surface of the water. To this day I am less comfortable on dark water though I am an avid sailor, rower and canoeist. Lawrence was a fisherman and a boatbuilder and I can still recall the smell of his shop when he'd had a boat on the go. His boat was the Grace F (his mother's name I suspect - the security of a boat with a name like that, for the son/owner, is not to be underestimated).
I added the colour - this was 1959 and most photography was in the much more imaginative black and white of the times.