Over the past month or so, I have learned of several friends’ experiences in the water.
I now know that Rusty is diligently working at prevailing over her fear of water and learning to swim. Brenda is also taking lessons. Diving at Possum Kingdom Lake gave Westie one hell of a headache, and Lucy was small but fearless when she was young. Minnie and others visited various places where rivers, lakes, and oceans were focal points.
My home is located in a water rich location. Lake Norfork and the Norfork River are a short distance to the east, and Bull Shoals Lake and the White River to the northwest. The Buffalo National River is less than an hour away. The area has been listed in outdoor magazines as among the best outdoor living and fishing in the nation. Forbes just put us on their list of top ten best trout fishing in North America. We boat, float, fish and swim almost all year. When time allows, I enjoy going down to drown some worms, going out on the boat, or taking the kids and their friends to jump off the bluffs. I have actually taken my kids swimming several times in November.
In the summer of 2006, I had a unique opportunity to go out on Lake Norfork.
Our fire department was paged out for a boat fire, so I joined several of the guys down at the marina to take care of it. The boat that was on fire was about 100 yards from shore. Two other firefighters and myself had to stand in a boat in full turnout gear to be ferried out to the fire, grab it with pike poles and drag it to where our hoses could reach the flames. There were a few things wrong with this scenario. First, turnouts weigh about 40 pounds- four adults plus an additional 120 pounds standing in a small fiberglass boat. Second, we grabbed short pikes; they are only 8 foot long, which put the flaming floater much closer to our ride than we liked. Most importantly, from my viewpoint, there was no life jacket within my reach. Unfortunately, like Rusty, I do not swim. I am not really afraid of the water, but I have never had any desire to learn how to swim. I still don’t. So why I hauled my ass into a boat without a life jacket is beyond me. We managed to get the boat within a few feet of shore, doused the flames, and then dragged what was left of it onto the shore. This was accomplished with typical firefighter bravado and dumb luck.
Since then, I have taken classes in water rescue and learned that structure fire turnouts should never be worn on or near water as they will soak up to triple their weight. If somebody was on the boat, our job should be to get them out; otherwise, we should just sit back and watch it burn. 
I hope at some point you learn to swim Smokey. It really is fun and great exercise. Besides reading that you don't swim and do water rescues is scary! There's no requirment for your job to be able to swim?? That's odd....
ReplyDeleteWhy you say I *was* short and fearless? I'm still short ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think water rescue is cooler than swimming.
I really enjoyed reading this. Yeah, always have a life jacket on or close enough to grab if you can't swim. Love seeing your scenic photos of the area.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine my life without swimming.One of the primary reasons I have been in Dallas so much this summer is so that I can swim anytime I want to. I have been floating the dead-mans float every day for 20 minutes as a way to relax. It's working.
ReplyDeleteI love to swim underwater and pretend I am Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. I love to be on top of the water in a boat or on a Sea=doo. In a pinch, I'll take 4 baths a day to get my water time in. I cannot live without water.
When I travel and find myself near a boady of water, I get an almost compulsive desire to touch the water or put my feet in it.
I have a rule that I must touch the Atlantic, the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico at least once a year, (preferably all three) and also must touch the Guadalupe River or one of it's tributaries as often as possible.
I could not live without water in my life.
I love spending time on and in the water throughout the year. That is probably the biggest reason I haven't moved somewhere more forward thinking.
ReplyDeleteI had to do aquatherapy in a heated pool 3 times a week for six months, which I thought rocked- talk about low impact exercise!
I am thinking that when I was really young, something happened to make me not want to swim. The odd part is that I believe that I could swim if I ever needed to, but if I don't have that need, it's not happening.
Lucy- I said "small", not short, and I meant it in a loving way. I know several people who are vertically challenged (one is less than 1.5m tall), and we help each other. I save them from climbing on stools and they keep me from bending wrong.
Neo- Not that I can make it a yearly ritual, but I feel the same way about touching the waters. In my lifetime, I would like to touch all the major American waters. I have been in all 5 great lakes, both oceans, the Gulf, the Mississippi, Missouri, Niagara, Wabash, Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, Columbia, Colorado and Snake Rivers. I am sure I have many more to find.