The North and South Rivers aren’t just waterways – they are a community. A community filled with personal stories. As NSRWA plans for the future, we want to be sure to remember the past … by collecting the stories of our local river people!
Volunteer Bruce Haas has been busy this spring and summer, interviewing community members. The story-gathering process will continue, but starting today, we’re ready to start sharing them, here in the e-news and on our website. Eventually we plan to publish them all as a book.
Chris Zaremba’s river story is featured below.
If you have a North and South Rivers story to tell, we’d like to hear it and share it. Let us know by registering here.
Chris Toto Zaremba of Scituate Shares Her Family’s River Story
Chris Zaremba’s passion for the North River started before she became a South Shore resident. She and her late husband Walter, along with their sons, discovered the North River about 45 years ago, thanks to joining the Wampanoag Paddlers, a family paddling group.
“We had tried a few types of watercrafts but decided that we loved canoeing. Plus, back then, kayaking was not as popular as it is today. Then the “Wampies” introduced us to Scituate, many New England rivers, and the paddling community. So, we left the North Shore where we had grown up, and Minot became our home base.
Family Fun on The Spit
One of the river trips on our group’s schedule was the Spit. We’d paddle out to where we thought it would show itself and waited in our canoes for the Spit to show itself. A pristine section of sand that got cleaned every twelve hours, appearing two hours before low tide then disappeared two hours after low tide. We had a game to see who would find the first patch of solid ground to land on. After all our boats landed, we’d spend the day playing what we called ‘all terrain bocce’ over all the textures of new sand, fishing, flying kites, eating and planning new trips until the time came to leave. At that point, we would just sit in the canoes and let the tide lift us off the disappearing Spit for our paddle back up the North River to Herring Brook, taking out at the Driftway.”
We felt bad for the people in their big motorboats because they could not experience the coming and going of the Spit. They could however walk out to it through what we call the ‘inland ocean’ which was a pool of water that got left behind as the tide went out between the land and the backside of the Spit. And other people could walk out to it over a partial boardwalk from Third Cliff, if they can find a place to park!”
The Canoe Guy
Chris and Walter found great joy in sharing their love of the river. Over the years, Walter even helped many people get their own boats so they too could enjoy paddling.
“Walter became known as the ‘canoe guy’ after we moved to the West End of town because he would buy and sell boats out on our front yard. Sometimes he would actually stop at someone’s house and knock on the door saying “I’ve seen a boat in your yard that has not moved in the past year. Want to sell it?”
Or he would ask a person who just stopped to browse what they were looking for, what they would want to do in the boat. Yes, just like golf clubs, depending on what you do, there are different styles of boats. Fishing or just cruising is a flat bottom canoe but going down a river with some whitewater requires less surface on the water so you can move fast around obstacles. Camping out of a canoe requires room for tents and gear. And then there are Kevlar boats, expensive, but very light to get on top of their vehicle!
If he did not have what they were interested in, he would go find it for them.
River Races and Water Testing
Over the years, Chris and Walter became members of the NSRWA.
“We were in one of the early Great River races. We and a friend signed up as solo boaters but since they did not have a class for one person paddlers, they made one for us. And since no one else was padding solo, I won the woman’s solo class and Walter, and our friend took first and second place in the men’s solo class!”
The Zarembas got involved with one of the first water quality programs.
“In the canoes we could get up into the North River tributaries. While others checked the quality from the shoreline, we were able to take samples of areas that had oil leaks into the river and report on that for cleanup. It was good to do something to help the river that we loved as well as just introducing people to it.”
They were also involved with the NSRWA Outdoor Expo where there was a kayak raffle. Many outfitters would spend the day selling gear. Their paddling group came to promote the North River and other New England rivers where that gear could be used.
Loving the North River
Chris said that although Walter loved introducing other people to the North River, he loved his alone time out there too. He knew every inch of the river and sometimes would pack a tent and some gear to spend the night with the bald eagle, the great blues and the sound of the river. Fifteen years ago, he passed away there. Chris has not been on the river since.
When asked what attracted them to the rivers, she put it this way,
“The freedom. You see things differently. It’s kind of like being on a bike. You can feel the wind; you can smell everything. And because we paddled the Old North Woods way, down on our knees, it was like it was part of us.”
The North River was so important to the family that when their son Matt got married, it was in Norris reservation, at the boathouse, donated by a ‘Wampie’.
He knew that his dad would be there that day…
Chris Shared Two Poems She Wrote
Outgoing Tide
by Chris Toto Zaremba
It’s a perfect outgoing tide
Wind to my back
Sun by my side.
We have known so many of these days.
Packed picnics, chairs and bocci balls
in two matching red canoes
with our golden in my bow.
Paddled the twists and turns
of the Herring River til it met the North.
Gliding past the big boats,
we’d round the bend and wait…
Wait for the tide to go out enough
to lift our boats onto the newly arrived
pristine spit of sand.
The spit that came to visit
for just a few hours twice a day.
It’s a perfect outgoing tide.
Today, I stand alone on the bank,
remembering days we shared.
Wind to our backs
Sun by our side.
Blessed Canoe
by Chris Toto Zaremba
He blessed each new canoe
to the four winds.
He rubbed river mud upon the floor.
He asked the Universe to protect it
and always bring it home,
to shore.
He left to paddle the river north.
He wasn’t going far.
Following currents by day
and by night, following a star.
The Universe returned the canoe back home.
Following its own plan.
You see, the blessing was only for the boat.
It was never for the man…
(In memory of Walter, gone to the North River 2011)