Two, One Of a Kind Firetrucks:
For today:
Water,
the elixir of life. Without it NOTHING
LIVES!
I have
loved water since the first creek I played in when I was 4 and 5. The next 2-3
years there wasn’t much water magic except my first sight of the Atlantic Ocean
in the second grade. WOW I was hooked. So much water and beautiful waves, and
their power.
Then
came 3rd-6th grades, Albemarle, NC with several creeks
plus a public swimming pool which I was not allowed to enjoy (church rules) but
I knew God would forgive, so three summers I sneaked off and enjoyed.
I met
my friend (VonDale) there. He knew all the swimming holes on his side of town,
plus a rock quarry. Most the swimming in creeks was skinny dipping, no girls
allowed. Some time we wore our skivvies as bathing suits. One ‘neat’ thing
about the public pool, if a kid did not have trunks, they had many you could
have free that had been left behind.
Most creek
swimming holes had rope swings hung from overhanging trees we could swing out
and drop in the water.
In our
first year of marriage we lived at Camp Lejeune, NC. Close to the Atlantic
beaches. We loved to walk the sandy beaches and find shells. I have told this before,
once we experienced a ‘RIP TIDE’, it happened before we knew it. I started
trying to walk back to the beach but it was one step back and 3 steps out. When
I realized I could not get us back I told Sherry (A devout Christian, me? Not
so much) “You had better pray, I can’t get us back!” She could not swim. I
tried going to the bottom and holding her up, then pushing her toward the beach
and coming up for air. NADA
She
finally said, “I give up,” and relaxed. She had very long hair, face down it
spread around her head. Scared the fright right out of me… I was trying to
tread water and hold her up. Seeing that sight I grabbed her and lifted her
head out of the water and yelled, “You WILL NOT DROWN, your mama will think I
brought you out here and drowned you!”
I had some knowledge of water rescue
it finally kicked in and using the things I KNEW. With her relaxed I held her
with one arm and swam with the other, eventually we got back to shore.
WE have
never forgotten those moments. God was good to us.
Next
more water….
NiteShipslog
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4 comments:
Another good Entry, I grew up near a Swamp, a Creek and Jone's Pond, The Pond was circular, about a 1/4 Mile across. My Nickname in School was "Frog" which I hated but after a few trips to the School Principal I learned to Tolerate it ! We swam in it, Ice Skated on it, Fished it summer and winter ! Grerat Memories !
Hope you 2 are behaving, sounds like your doing pretty good on your "Pack" an walking, Just don't overdo ! Sending down Love and Prayers from the Snowy Cold North ! Gary and Anna Mae
Oh, how your early memories echo those Tom tells! I never had occasion to play in a 'swimming hole' but Tom tells about boys and girls alike playing in their skivvies ... how his momma could tell what they'd been doing when he arrived home with the white undies covered in dried mud.
Your experience with the rip tide is beyond chilling. Yes, God is good!
Wow ... what a story of you and Sherry out to sea. Thank God you managed to swim back safely. Praise the Lord.
God bless you both now and always.
Oh wow! I'm so glad you both survived that rip tide. That was a close one! I'm not a good swimmer and never take any chances with going into deep water. I can float and love to go to the pool when it's hot out, but the ocean is far away from me. Water is a necessity but we need to know what to do when we are in it. It's freezing cold here today and no swimming until after Memorial Day. It's going to be a cold and long winter.
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