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Congrats Harriet, what an outstanding achievement! (and some great stories too!)
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HARRIET THOMPSON; SOUTH SHORE OUTBOARD ASSOCIATION LIFETIME INDUCTION The final presentation of this evening, will be the lifetime induction to The South Shore Outboard Association, of Harriet Thompson. At this time, in order to demonstrate the impact she has had on this club, I would please request anyone present who is in any way related to Harriet to stand up. In 1983 Harriet Thompson, along with her daughter Lynn and her son Jason, attended her first boat race. They had been invited by Harriet’s good friend Nancy Rosado to a race in Lowell hosted by the South Shore Outboard Association. Nancy had previously spent many years serving as Chief Scorer for SSOA during the sixties and then again in the eighties. It was her close friendship with Nancy which had brought Harriet to the banks of the Merrimac River on that cold September day thirty years ago. When I asked Jason, who was eight years old at the time, if he had any memory of going to the race that day he said "Oh yeah, I remember Billy Rosado throwing a mental fit and chucking his helmet after being called for jumping the gun.” The following weekend Harriet was at a race in Oxford Ct. and the weekend after that she was at another race in Bristol Ct. When that weekend was over she was heading home with a used Marchetti Hydro for her boys. "And that was the beginning my demise" she said recently. Admittedly, it was the camaraderie of the participants and the friendly, family atmosphere of the event that got her hooked. "It looked like a good place for the kids" she told me. Three years later, in 1986, as her 3 sons began their racing careers under the tutelage of Joc Rosado, Harriet joined the SSOA and starting scoring alongside Nancy on the Judges Stand. By 1994 she was an approved APBA Chief Scorer and by 1997, with the prodding of her good friend Bob Trolian, she was serving as Chief Scorer at her first National Event, the combined Stock-Mod Winter Nationals in Ocoee Fla. There were over four hundred entries. "Bob was a nice guy," Harriet said "he really knew how to run the show and we got along great" Working on the judges stand for the next two decades, while she endured, cold, heat, wind, rain and, as she so often put it " the biggest bunch of babies I ever saw". Harriet went on to serve as Chief Scorer at literally hundreds of races. She has scored every single SSOA race since 1995. Along with this unselfish service to The SSOA on the local level, Harriet has also served as Chief Scorer at Five Nationals, seven Winter Nationals and countless Divisional Championships. In 2011 she was voted Scorer of the Year by The American Powerboat Association. While she toiled for endless hours on the judge’s stand, Harriet’s hard work was offset by the joy of watching her family becoming involved in the sport that she had come to love so much. Her son Brian, a former A-Runabout driver himself, is a fixture at all the local races, is instrumental in getting a low cost ambulance for our Taunton Race, and is still one of the best pit men in the business. Harriet’s granddaughter Meghan, is now working alongside her Grandmother on the judges stand, working the video and calling the starts at all of the SSOA races. And of course, sons Jeff and Jason, both becoming APBA National Champions and Jeff receiving the nation’s highest honor as a driver in 2004 when he was inducted into The APBA Hall of Champions. And after all these years Harriet still has only two rules when it comes to racing....1) She don't want Jason gettin in no hydros. and 2) If she goes home from Taunton to start supper, we can't stop at the Gondola on the way home. However, when I sat down with Harriet at her dinner table a couple of weeks ago and asked her about her years of service to The SSOA and to our sport of boatracing, it wasn’t the racing, scoring or working on the judges stand that came flooding to the forefront of her mind, instead It was the people, the places and the whole world of experiences that she has shared with her family as she criss crossed the country, visiting such exotic destinations as Norwood NY, Depue Il, Copperopolis Ca. or Camden NC. In Alexandria Kentucky she raced a Mouse boat, in Worcester she had a brief...very brief, C-Hydro career driving in The Powder Puff Race where she finally realized why we drank so much. And then there were the happy moments like the time she fell into the Grand Canyon, Rode the Crazy Ship at The Lake Compounce amusement park or was very nearly swallowed up along with her inner tube while rafting the Kern River in the mountains of California. And for years, on the road, there were the hundreds of Team Scott road trips in the most reliable vehicles combined with the most luxurious accommodations. Traveling with the CB Handle "High Mileage Mama" Harriet was a master of the highway and was known for her red-eye marathon stints on the midnight shift. But back to the vehicles. Weather they were breaking a timing chain on the Newburg Bridge, or a fuel pump up at Lake Superior, an engine failure in Stockbridge, or a trailer axle in St. Louis, it was always a never ending adventure with Harriet and Team Scott. Let’s not forget about the tires falling off on the way to Lock Haven, the engine fire in Hinton, the blown head gasket in Oswego or the time she smuggled contraband over the bridge from Canada….by mistake. And then there was the time they blew a radiator on the way to Wakefield. About that one Harriet recently told me, "we knew it was gonna blow but we just loaded up the trunk with bottles of antifreeze and went" she said," Because we couldn't find anyone who would put in a new one on a Friday". That time they made it all the way to Sturbridge. And of course there was the time when Jeff bought a Cadillac for 100 bucks on a Wednesday and took it to the Nationals in Lawrenceville Pa. on Friday. That week not only did the muffler fall off and start the field behind the pits on fire, but they also lost the dog, Bandit, who had to be flown home on a plane a week later. And my personal favorite was when they arrived at the Nationals in Wakefield in this big Buick, and then all 4 tires went flat right there in the pits! Jeff said, hey look, there's a tire store and he went walking over whistling a happy tune. Along the way we learned that there was no challenge too great for Harriet. And of course her classic one liners were another one of the things we liked so much about her. For instance when Jason blew it over backwards on the starting line at the Whitney Point Nationals and got taken to the ambulance, I walked over to the judges stand and asked Harriet, who was about to score the restart, if I should go over and check on him, she looked up and, with a big eye roll she said, " he looked ok when he went by in the patrol boat, he's just a big drama queen". And then, in the years when I was competing against Jeff in B Mod or C Hydro, the races would be over and everyone would be relaxing around the pits. Harriet would wait for the perfect quiet moment, and then she would lean in and say to me "Jeff kicked your ass today!" Through all of these excellent adventures we all came to learn one thing, that this quiet, reserved little woman, who many only knew as the person taking their registrations on race morning, had an iron will and a steely resolve that was virtually unshakeable. When she wanted to get something done, it got done. When she wanted to get somewhere, she got there, period. Harriet, there are simply no words to express the amount of gratitude that this organization feels toward you, and to the years of dedication and effort, that you have donated to this club. To the Thompson Family, let me just say thanks for sharing Harriet with us. It's been a great road and Harriet; I am honored to have walked some of it with you. And so it is with great respect and admiration that I now state, by the power invested in me by this Association that from this time on, Harriet Thompson should, will and ought to be, regarded by all, as a lifetime Honorary Member of The South Shore Outboard Association. Ladies and Gentlemen, a woman that we all so dearly love, and the SSOA'S newest lifetime member, Harriet Thompson.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4sJRe73mDx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
HARRIET THOMPSON; SOUTH SHORE OUTBOARD ASSOCIATION LIFETIME INDUCTION The final presentation of this evening, will be the lifetime induction to The South Shore Outboard Association, of Harriet Thompson. At this time, in order to demonstrate the impact she has had on this club, I would please request anyone present who is in any way related to Harriet to stand up. In 1983 Harriet Thompson, along with her daughter Lynn and her son Jason, attended her first boat race. They had been invited by Harriet’s good friend Nancy Rosado to a race in Lowell hosted by the South Shore Outboard Association. Nancy had previously spent many years serving as Chief Scorer for SSOA during the sixties and then again in the eighties. It was her close friendship with Nancy which had brought Harriet to the banks of the Merrimac River on that cold September day thirty years ago. When I asked Jason, who was eight years old at the time, if he had any memory of going to the race that day he said "Oh yeah, I remember Billy Rosado throwing a mental fit and chucking his helmet after being called for jumping the gun.” The following weekend Harriet was at a race in Oxford Ct. and the weekend after that she was at another race in Bristol Ct. When that weekend was over she was heading home with a used Marchetti Hydro for her boys. "And that was the beginning my demise" she said recently. Admittedly, it was the camaraderie of the participants and the friendly, family atmosphere of the event that got her hooked. "It looked like a good place for the kids" she told me. Three years later, in 1986, as her 3 sons began their racing careers under the tutelage of Joc Rosado, Harriet joined the SSOA and starting scoring alongside Nancy on the Judges Stand. By 1994 she was an approved APBA Chief Scorer and by 1997, with the prodding of her good friend Bob Trolian, she was serving as Chief Scorer at her first National Event, the combined Stock-Mod Winter Nationals in Ocoee Fla. There were over four hundred entries. "Bob was a nice guy," Harriet said "he really knew how to run the show and we got along great" Working on the judges stand for the next two decades, while she endured, cold, heat, wind, rain and, as she so often put it " the biggest bunch of babies I ever saw". Harriet went on to serve as Chief Scorer at literally hundreds of races. She has scored every single SSOA race since 1995. Along with this unselfish service to The SSOA on the local level, Harriet has also served as Chief Scorer at Five Nationals, seven Winter Nationals and countless Divisional Championships. In 2011 she was voted Scorer of the Year by The American Powerboat Association. While she toiled for endless hours on the judge’s stand, Harriet’s hard work was offset by the joy of watching her family becoming involved in the sport that she had come to love so much. Her son Brian, a former A-Runabout driver himself, is a fixture at all the local races, is instrumental in getting a low cost ambulance for our Taunton Race, and is still one of the best pit men in the business. Harriet’s granddaughter Meghan, is now working alongside her Grandmother on the judges stand, working the video and calling the starts at all of the SSOA races. And of course, sons Jeff and Jason, both becoming APBA National Champions and Jeff receiving the nation’s highest honor as a driver in 2004 when he was inducted into The APBA Hall of Champions. And after all these years Harriet still has only two rules when it comes to racing....1) She don't want Jason gettin in no hydros. and 2) If she goes home from Taunton to start supper, we can't stop at the Gondola on the way home. However, when I sat down with Harriet at her dinner table a couple of weeks ago and asked her about her years of service to The SSOA and to our sport of boatracing, it wasn’t the racing, scoring or working on the judges stand that came flooding to the forefront of her mind, instead It was the people, the places and the whole world of experiences that she has shared with her family as she criss crossed the country, visiting such exotic destinations as Norwood NY, Depue Il, Copperopolis Ca. or Camden NC. In Alexandria Kentucky she raced a Mouse boat, in Worcester she had a brief...very brief, C-Hydro career driving in The Powder Puff Race where she finally realized why we drank so much. And then there were the happy moments like the time she fell into the Grand Canyon, Rode the Crazy Ship at The Lake Compounce amusement park or was very nearly swallowed up along with her inner tube while rafting the Kern River in the mountains of California. And for years, on the road, there were the hundreds of Team Scott road trips in the most reliable vehicles combined with the most luxurious accommodations. Traveling with the CB Handle "High Mileage Mama" Harriet was a master of the highway and was known for her red-eye marathon stints on the midnight shift. But back to the vehicles. Weather they were breaking a timing chain on the Newburg Bridge, or a fuel pump up at Lake Superior, an engine failure in Stockbridge, or a trailer axle in St. Louis, it was always a never ending adventure with Harriet and Team Scott. Let’s not forget about the tires falling off on the way to Lock Haven, the engine fire in Hinton, the blown head gasket in Oswego or the time she smuggled contraband over the bridge from Canada….by mistake. And then there was the time they blew a radiator on the way to Wakefield. About that one Harriet recently told me, "we knew it was gonna blow but we just loaded up the trunk with bottles of antifreeze and went" she said," Because we couldn't find anyone who would put in a new one on a Friday". That time they made it all the way to Sturbridge. And of course there was the time when Jeff bought a Cadillac for 100 bucks on a Wednesday and took it to the Nationals in Lawrenceville Pa. on Friday. That week not only did the muffler fall off and start the field behind the pits on fire, but they also lost the dog, Bandit, who had to be flown home on a plane a week later. And my personal favorite was when they arrived at the Nationals in Wakefield in this big Buick, and then all 4 tires went flat right there in the pits! Jeff said, hey look, there's a tire store and he went walking over whistling a happy tune. Along the way we learned that there was no challenge too great for Harriet. And of course her classic one liners were another one of the things we liked so much about her. For instance when Jason blew it over backwards on the starting line at the Whitney Point Nationals and got taken to the ambulance, I walked over to the judges stand and asked Harriet, who was about to score the restart, if I should go over and check on him, she looked up and, with a big eye roll she said, " he looked ok when he went by in the patrol boat, he's just a big drama queen". And then, in the years when I was competing against Jeff in B Mod or C Hydro, the races would be over and everyone would be relaxing around the pits. Harriet would wait for the perfect quiet moment, and then she would lean in and say to me "Jeff kicked your ass today!" Through all of these excellent adventures we all came to learn one thing, that this quiet, reserved little woman, who many only knew as the person taking their registrations on race morning, had an iron will and a steely resolve that was virtually unshakeable. When she wanted to get something done, it got done. When she wanted to get somewhere, she got there, period. Harriet, there are simply no words to express the amount of gratitude that this organization feels toward you, and to the years of dedication and effort, that you have donated to this club. To the Thompson Family, let me just say thanks for sharing Harriet with us. It's been a great road and Harriet; I am honored to have walked some of it with you. And so it is with great respect and admiration that I now state, by the power invested in me by this Association that from this time on, Harriet Thompson should, will and ought to be, regarded by all, as a lifetime Honorary Member of The South Shore Outboard Association. Ladies and Gentlemen, a woman that we all so dearly love, and the SSOA'S newest lifetime member, Harriet Thompson.
11 J........ Dangerous when Wet 
Runne Craft- Earl said, " Driving a Runne Craft is like Cheating". Dude, ........ Where's My Boat! 
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