A Swim In The Park

Discussion in 'Tall Tales & Fabrications' started by Bill Boggs, Aug 8, 2017.

  1. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    There is a little story I keep bumping into in the back of my mind. I was in the second or third grade but it was in the summer when school was out and dad got a job with Halliburton. He was hired in Wichita Falls but the job was in Nocona and we had to move there. Jack and Mildred Parks loaded up our belongings and carried them to our newly rented place in Nocona and we followed in the car.


    We lived only a few blocks from a city park that had a swimming pool and in no time, the first weekend in Nocona, Kenneth and I walk to the park in our freshly cut off britches to go swimming and to socialize with kids our own age.


    We stayed a couple or hours and returned home but later that evening our parents consented to let us go back to the park for another short dip before bedtime. It was still light but fewer people were at the park. As we approached the pool I took off running and dived into the deep end. As soon as I dived I realized my mistake. They had drained the pool and only a few inches of water covered the deep end.


    I slammed into the concrete bottom face first, both surprised and hurt. Skin had been scrapped off me from my knees to the crown of my head. I somehow walked to the shallow end of the pool, trying not to cry because a small group of kids had gathered around the edge of the pool to see how bad a moment of stupidity had cause my hurt. Everyone seemed to know the pool was drained every Sunday afternoon late but me. I was a skinned mess for a couple of weeks. That was not my last act of stupidity growing up but it is the last time I dived in a pool without checking the depth of the water.
     
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  2. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    LOL... I bet it was.
     
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  3. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    :eek: Bill, that really shocked me
    You could have been hurt so bad ! You had a lucky near miss
     
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  4. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    Thank goodness you survived that. That had to hurt really bad. Lolol trust me your not the only one that has done goofy mistakes. Least you were a kiddo. I got my thumb stuck in a type writter once...had to call fire dept....Bill I was in my late 30's ! Talk about dumb;)
     
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  5. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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  6. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Nothing dumb about it. Typewriters are a maze of bent and twisted metals underneath a maze of pads and a roller that will color your skin and tattle on you. Anyone with no practice at all could do that. No, that's not dumb. Just an unlucky day.
     
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  7. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    You are so right. If it's larger than a bucket of water, I steer clear.
     
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  8. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    And how, pray tell, does a mature, reasonably intelligent woman get her finger stuck in a typewriter? :D
     
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  9. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    You ever been swimmin' in a creek, @Bill Boggs ?
     
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  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Many a times. Swam the Wichita River twice when spring rains had it out of its bank and three times it's normal width but it was not the size that made it a challenge to young minds but the swiftness of the river and the many logs and debris it carried.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 10, 2017
  11. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs You must have been very brave (or not very bright) :D to have tried that. I have been swimmin' in a creek many times.
     
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  12. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    No, I wasn't brave, I was scared, very scared because a friend had lost his life doing the same thing a year earlier in the same section of river. I suppose it was peer pressure. I was not even a good swimmer, but kids will do stupid things. I lived roughly four hundred yards from Holiday Creek and about a quarter mile from the Wichita River in a wildness area Back before we had dams. Both flooded in the spring. We lived in a flood plane but didn't know it till years later. Every spring when the creek started rising we would pack every thing up off the floor and pile it on the kitchen table, cabinets, and on the bed so we could leave in a hurry if necessary and hoped it didn't get that deep in the house. Most of the streets on the east side of town were unpaved and could get mudded up and the ruts grow deep and it was hard to walk to the store or anywhere without getting mud splashed all over you.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 10, 2017
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  13. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Hey, that's not dumb, that first time is a mistake. Dumb is when you keep doing it. but i'm sure something like that can get you a ribbing.
     
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  14. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    Wow, you were one lucky hombre. You could have really sustained serious damage to yourself, Bill.
     
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  15. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I know. My hands and arms took the brunt of the blow
     
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