Near Drownings

This is another topic on which I had promised to expound.

I have nearly drowned on several occasions. Yet, I am not and never have been afraid of the water. I don't know why, I couldn't swim and seemed to have zero buoyancy until I was 17. I should have been banned from all water activities until then....but I wasn't.

The first time I remember nearly drowning was at Halsey. We were there for the Father's Day Family Reunion. I don't know how old I was but I do know that I was at that age where you sortof get a little offended about swimming only in the baby pool. So I decided to bust out of there and go to the big pool. The shallow end was not shallow for very far before it started to drop off sharply to the deep end. I don't know how I ended up out there but I was way over my head and was bouncing up and down to gasp for air and getting pretty tired. My Mom was outside the fence trying to get the lifeguards attention and she was also yelling at my older brother to get me....he was an excellent swimmer and got all the buoyant genes I guess.
He and my cousin both tried to get to me but the lifeguard got me first. I was plumb full of pool water but was fine. She asked me if I could swim. Umm.....huh? I was told to go back to the baby pool. Humiliating. It wasn't the only time or at the only pool that a lifeguard had to save me either. True.

I think I tried to drown at Halsey at least one other time too. I don't know....I've lost count.

The next time I remember was the 4th of July and we went to the river at Milburn. There were a lot of families there that we knew and my brothers friend and he started to play football on a sandbar. I am not sure how it happened but I ended up clinging to that football for my life as I floated down the river and got caught in a current that was so deep that I couldn't touch bottom in. My Dad had just gotten a new pair of super nifty green slip on tennis shoes. I had never really seen him in anything but cowboy boots. He came running down the river and was yelling at the boys to help me. Tim got to me and I grabbed onto him but he couldn't swim for the two of us so he pushed me away and got me back on the football. We must have come to shallower water and gotten up on a sandbar. We had to walk a long way back to where everyone else was. Dad was walking towards us and he was sloshing water out of his new shoes with every step. He did NOT look too happy. He wasn't too happy. We packed up and went home. He chewed on me most of the way and Tim made faces at me and non-verbally communicated to me that I was an idiot....as only brothers can.

I will stop here a minute and ask....where was the love? On the movies kids that nearly die never get in trouble or harassed by angry siblings....there are hugs and tears and more hugs. Not me....just ridicule and scorn...what is the deal with that?

Ok. I am sure there were many other times....but the worst and probably most dangerous would have been when I was in Jr. High. Mom....maybe you should not read any further. I'm serious.

I stayed with my friend Jolene. She lived right by the river and the Milburn Dam. The canal came off the dam and ran off to the east. There were some service bridges that went across the canal. It was deep and really fast and the bridges were wide enough to walk over. We liked to go there and go out on the bridge and then lower ourselves into the canal while hanging onto the bridge and see how long we could hold on until....we couldn't hold on any longer and the water would sweep us away. Actually it didn't sweep us away so much as...uh...under. As soon as it pulled you off the bridge you would be tumbling around and had to try to right yourself and swim and kick like crazy to get to the top, gasp in some air, and then kick like crazy to make it to the side and climb out. It would carry you a long ways before you could get all that done and you felt like you had run a marathon. Sometimes the under tow would grab you a couple of times before you made it to the side. Stupid.....I know. But we did it a lot.

My question is....why did no one ever buy me a life jacket? That would have been a good idea I think!

I will say that I did use some good judgement on more than one occasion at the Comstock Dam. When we, me and the community boys, got older, we would venture down the river to the dam and swim below the dam. It was far enough from the parent picnic spot that we had to drive down there and then we would explore for good swimming holes. We also would climb up beside a gate that was open and slide down as the water gushed out. Ok. That wasn't good judgement...but just wait. We also would climb up on the dam....it was just wide enough to walk single file and some of the boys would dive off the dam into the deep side.....but ONLY if none of the gates were open.....we weren't completely stupid....just mostly stupid. No. No life jackets. But...I never did this. I think that is good don't you?

Ok....the last time that I remember feeling like I was in trouble in the water....which now that I think about it....would have been the only time, because strangely enough all those other times I never really felt like I was in trouble. I figured Tim would save me I guess and mostly he did.

So the first and last time that I remember feeling like I was in trouble in the water was actually after I became a fairly strong swimmer. I was at Merritt Dam with some family friends and we were playing on the beach. A beach ball blew into the lake and they were trying to get a boaters attention to bring it back to us. It wasn't really out that far so I started swimming out to get it....but it kept getting farther and farther away and I was getting tired. I looked back at the beach to see how far I had come and I was out a really long way. I hadn't even realized it. I turned around and started back for shore and had to keep flipping over to my back to try to catch my breath and rest to swim some more. I was truly worried that I wasn't going to make it but I did. I was exhausted. No. I didn't have a life jacket that time either. Dumb.

So there you go. I have survived some really poor decision making skills about the water. Yet, I am still not afraid. Respectful but not afraid.

I won't be posting for a while because my Mom reads this and I am pretty sure she will ground me.