A Dumb Idea (#3)
I don't know what it is about me and water and almost dying.
The creek was fed by a small pond--I knew this because one afternoon in November, I followed the creek to its source with the Griffin brothers. The pond was on the property of some people who had a lot of money, and we think they may have illegally kept birds of prey at some point because they had several small shacks on the property that obviously--at one point--housed large birds with big talons (there were huge, scarred perches in the shacks). Maybe it was all on the up and up...who knows. All I know is the house on the property was huge and the pond was out of view from the house.
For some stupid reason, probably at Matt Griffin's prodding--we decided to swim in the pond (clothes and all...in mid November in northern Illinois with a several mile walk home in the cold). I'm amazed hypothermia didn't set in after the swim across the pond and back to the shore.
Matt had an ear problem (his head was run over by a city street maintenance truck when we were younger), and he was told not to get water in his ears. So he stuffed his ears with leaves. The leaves got stuck; we had to dig them out with sharp sticks, much to Matt's dismay.
But this isn't about swimming in a pond in November--this is about the creek the pond fed.
The creek ran from the pond to a larger pond in the big, community park our backyard dumped into. In summer when the rains came, the creek was always swollen. But that didn't stop me from playing in the creek. I can't remember who I was with this particular day, but it was quite an afternoon...
I never realized how strong a swollen creek was until I was pulled in. One moment, my feet were solidly beneath me--and the next, they were knocked out and I was potentially one of those kids you hear about on the evening news ("A twelve-year-old boy in Mundelein drowned today in a swollen creek near his home...")
What surprised me most was not the speed the creek flowed, but the different forces at play as the creek wound through bushes and trees normally on the creek's banks. I don't know if it was a tree or a bush, but I found myself sucked underwater and pinned almost upside-down against some kind of woody, giant plant thing.
I got a bit of a breath before going under, but that didn't matter with the force of the raging creek. Even with my mouth clenched shut, mud from the creek packed my nose, and at some point I opened my mouth and it was filled with mud. During the autopsy I was sure I was headed for, they'd find more mud in my lungs than water.
I slowly worked my way free from the force of the creek pinning me against the tree or bush and broke the surface. I swam as hard as I could for the shore, grabbing branches and pulling myself to safety.
I dodged another drowning in my time and never went near the creek when it rained again...
The creek was fed by a small pond--I knew this because one afternoon in November, I followed the creek to its source with the Griffin brothers. The pond was on the property of some people who had a lot of money, and we think they may have illegally kept birds of prey at some point because they had several small shacks on the property that obviously--at one point--housed large birds with big talons (there were huge, scarred perches in the shacks). Maybe it was all on the up and up...who knows. All I know is the house on the property was huge and the pond was out of view from the house.
For some stupid reason, probably at Matt Griffin's prodding--we decided to swim in the pond (clothes and all...in mid November in northern Illinois with a several mile walk home in the cold). I'm amazed hypothermia didn't set in after the swim across the pond and back to the shore.
Matt had an ear problem (his head was run over by a city street maintenance truck when we were younger), and he was told not to get water in his ears. So he stuffed his ears with leaves. The leaves got stuck; we had to dig them out with sharp sticks, much to Matt's dismay.
But this isn't about swimming in a pond in November--this is about the creek the pond fed.
The creek ran from the pond to a larger pond in the big, community park our backyard dumped into. In summer when the rains came, the creek was always swollen. But that didn't stop me from playing in the creek. I can't remember who I was with this particular day, but it was quite an afternoon...
I never realized how strong a swollen creek was until I was pulled in. One moment, my feet were solidly beneath me--and the next, they were knocked out and I was potentially one of those kids you hear about on the evening news ("A twelve-year-old boy in Mundelein drowned today in a swollen creek near his home...")
What surprised me most was not the speed the creek flowed, but the different forces at play as the creek wound through bushes and trees normally on the creek's banks. I don't know if it was a tree or a bush, but I found myself sucked underwater and pinned almost upside-down against some kind of woody, giant plant thing.
I got a bit of a breath before going under, but that didn't matter with the force of the raging creek. Even with my mouth clenched shut, mud from the creek packed my nose, and at some point I opened my mouth and it was filled with mud. During the autopsy I was sure I was headed for, they'd find more mud in my lungs than water.
I slowly worked my way free from the force of the creek pinning me against the tree or bush and broke the surface. I swam as hard as I could for the shore, grabbing branches and pulling myself to safety.
I dodged another drowning in my time and never went near the creek when it rained again...