I am reminded of another brother. Yeah, we lived an exciting life.
Anyway, I've already mentioned our house was very close to the river. We kids considered
the river and beaches ours. It was our backyard.
There was a small walking weir across the water. It was a dam. We swam on the calm
side. The other side of the weir was dangerous. The water was swift and deep. We knew we could never swim
on that side.
One of my brothers, the youngest, who was very small at the time, about five, I guess, decided
to see if I was paying attention to him. I was down on the sand, reading a book...
I thought he was playing somewhere.
Well, he yelled something at me to get my attention.
"Hey! Look at me!" He was standing out on that weir all by himself! I looked
up and saw him. I was so scared!
I screamed at him, "Don't jump!"
But he did. He said he didn't jump on purpose. He said I scared him when I hollered
at him. It was my fault!
You know which side he went off of don't you? Not the calm side.
It must run in the blood. genes. whatever.
He looked like a soaked cat! Hair was in his eyes. He was crying. I was
crying.
But you know what? He still had the cookie in his hand that he was eating when he walked
out on that weir! It was running out between his fingers, but he was holding on to it.
Tight! He said he knew he had to hold on to something, or he would drown!
I don't remember if he could swim at that time or not.
He could Dog-Paddle REAL good though!
