The day I almost drowned in a public swimming pool.
I almost drowned in this swimming pool back in 1959. It is located on Providence's Federal Hill. I was not a good swimmer and I decided to challenge my skills by jumping off the diving board, which used to be on the right in the above photo. I failed to meet the challenge. In fact I sank to the bottom and started thrashing wildly. In a few seconds the alert lifeguard on duty dove in, wrapped an arm around me and and hoisted me up to the surface where I remained dazed. He saved my life. My hero! I might have otherwise joined the teenager in my neighborhood who had indeed drowned not long before that in a pond where his raft had capsized. If I had been with him, we could have drowned in tandem.
That drowning.