6 replies to this topic

[Igloo Ed]

Not much swimming goes on in the park but this article talks about how to recognize someone who is drowning. Sounds like we've been misled by holywood.
Unsuspecting

[Rhonda]

Good info, Ed! I gave you a reputation point for that! As a witness to a drowning as a teen that made a huge impression on me, this information is invaluable and important.

[dianeh85]

Yikes, Rhonda, it brings back a bad memory for me too. I was next to a dock, had jumped off into too deep water and everyone just sat and looked at me. I managed to doggie paddle to shallower water, but that was my experience where I nearly drowned at about 7 years old.

[Allie]

Good info, Ed. I almost drown at the lake when we were playing tag under the dock. I got stuck between the barrels when a wake came in from a passing boat. Been afraid of water ever since.

[DrCloud]

That description of what happens when people drown is exactly what happened to me sometime around age 5.

Fortunately (for me, if not for the world in general), the water was just shallow enough that the vertical position and the dunking after the slight lift from my hands' pushing down on the surface caused me to sink to the point that I could push off the bottom with my feet. In that fashion, I managed to sort of hop back toward shore.

The experience motivated me to accept when my folks offered to send me to swimming lessons at the Y, but I still remember it after these many decades. HPH

[Mr. Jinks]

Important stuff. I was a lifeguard as a teen. Look at my profile picture (long hair and cowboy hat). That picture was taken at a riverside picnic when I was 21. Within an hour of that picture being taken I saved the girl who took that picture from drowning.

She couldn't swim. She was wading in the river about waist deep. But the bottom dropped away abruptly and the current prevented her from getting back to where she could stand. I didn't know any of this. But as I watched her from the bank I thought something wasn't right. I swam out to her and asked her if she was OK...she wasn't. She had already gone under a couple of times and was just about to drown. When I reached out to her she grabbed me in a panic and pulled me under. I knew how to get free, get behind her and pull her back to the bank.

I hadn't thought about this for years until I read the article. I hadn't even thought about my profile picture being from that incident until I started typing this.

[Rhonda]

That's a wonderful story, Mr. Jinks. You look like a rock star in that profile pic, or like 90% of the guys in my high school in the early 70s. Glad you were able to save that girl's life.