Saving lives around drunk people

During the summer of 1987, I had a girlfriend with three children, the oldest was 5 years old. If you thought about it enough, you could probably think of her name, but that’s not important. Being like most 5 year olds, he was quite active and it was amazing to spend time with him.

I worked long hours during that time and decided to take a day off, which allowed me to spend the day with my girlfriend and her children.

The children with their mother spent most of their summer days at Whiskey Town Lake west of Redding CA. There was a nice sandy beach with a line of trees along the south side of the swimming area that allowed people to sit in the shade or in the sun on the beach area.

On an average weekday, there would be between 75 and 100 adults with their children.

While the kids swam, the parents kept cool at the tree line, throwing a party every day with wine coolers and the like.

I was watching my girlfriend’s 5 year old boy while he was playing with a friend he met. They weren’t swimmers yet, but they had fun bouncing around in the shallow water by throwing a ball back and forth. Well, like 5-year-olds, they were testing each other by throwing the ball a little further, where the water was a little bit deeper and again a little bit deeper. As they bounced on tiptoe at the bottom, only the dogs were paddling swimming, but they still couldn’t swim.

I watched how it happened. The boy who was playing with my girlfriend’s boy, he went deep, a little too deep to bounce off the bottom and keep his head above the water.

I jumped up and ran towards him on the beach, when I reached the water’s edge, he had sunk twice, he was sinking for the third time when I reached him in the water. I picked it up and pulled it out of the water and carried it to shore.

He didn’t drown, but he was totally exhausted from the experience.

He would have drowned if I hadn’t been there, watching, preparing to react to the situation as it occurred.

The first sign that someone on the beach had a clue that this child was about to drown was when I nursed him out of the water to the beach, fully clothed and soaked.

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 impact 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 call everyone on the beach, who were a bunch of losers and drunkards, 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 person 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 left, never to return.

As I know, an angel put me on that beach that morning to save that child.

Did my words fall on deaf ears? I dont know?

The Timex watch he was wearing when this happened did not survive. Jo