During the summer of 1987 I had a girlfriend with three children, the oldest was 5 years old. If he thought hard enough, he could probably find her name, but that’s not important. Being like most 5 year olds, he was quite active and was amazing to spend time with.
I was working long hours during that time and decided to take a day off, which allowed me to spend the day with my girlfriend and her kids.
The boys with their mother spent most of their summer days at the Whiskey Town Lake west of Redding CA. There was a nice sandy beach with a tree line along the south side of the bathing area allowing people to sit in the shade or in the sun along the beach area.
On an average weekend there would be 75 to 100 adults with their children.
While the kids swam, the parents kept cool in the tree line, throwing a party every day with wine coolers and such.
I was watching my girlfriend’s 5-year-old boy playing with a friend he met. They weren’t swimmers yet, but they were having fun bouncing around in the shallow water throwing a ball back and forth. Well, as with 5-year-olds, they were testing each other by throwing the ball a little further, where the water was a little deeper, and again a little deeper. While they were bouncing on their toes on the bottom, only the dog was paddling swimming but he was still not able to swim.
I watched how it happened. The one kid who was playing with my girlfriend’s kid, went in deep, just a little too deep to tiptoe off the bottom and keep his head above water.
I jumped up and ran up the beach to him, by the time I got to the water’s edge he had sunk twice, he was sinking a third time when I caught up with him in the water. I picked him up and pulled him out of the water and brought him to shore.
He didn’t drown, but he was totally exhausted from the experience.
She would have drowned if I hadn’t been there, watching, preparing to react to the situation as it happened.
The first sign that someone on the beach had any idea that this child was about to drown was when I pulled him out of the water onto the beach, fully clothed and drenched.
After about five minutes of comforting the boy on his mother’s lap, he raised his head and thanked me. I could see in his eyes that he knew, he was about to die and I saved him.
I guess it was the shock of the situation that led me to do what I did next.
I walked to the head of the beach where everyone on the beach could see me standing.
I proceeded to yell at everyone on the beach that they were a bunch of losers and drunks, that the party was more important to them than the lives of their children.
That’s the polite way of saying what I actually said to the crowd that day. No one on the beach said a word, because everyone knew what had just happened. I was angry and for good reason, I went to my vehicle and drove away, never to return.
As I know, an angel placed me on that beach that morning to save that child.
Did my words fall on deaf ears? I don’t know?
The Timex watch he was wearing when this happened did not survive. Jo