I’d like for you all to share family stories, with me and the rest of the family. Feel free to share them in the comments, message me, or email. I’ll be happy to share with everyone or keep it private if you choose.
Here’s mine.
My grandfather was Bruce James Bass b. July 23 1927, and when I was about five years old he may have saved my life.
Me, my sister, and a group of cousins where staying with him for a few days. Probably for VBS at Sanford Baptist Church.
He’d taken us all to swim at his brother in law’s pool, Velt Newton. We’d been there a while, he swam with us and we’d all been horsing around and having a good time. When it came time to leave, he got out and dressed. Told us to wrap it up and start drying off, while he was putting on his boots, he almost always wore brogan style boots.
I lived out in the wood back then, and my “swimming” options were limited to small creeks and such not deep enough even for even a five year old to swim in. So I couldn’t swim a lick, and was still wearing the “floaties” kids put on their arms so they don’t die every time an adult turns their head.
Well, I decided I’d have one more go at the diving board. Obviously the correct approach to this activity is to hold you arms straight up and jump in. Not so obvious to me were the laws of physics, so I ended up in the deep end of the pool with no “floaties” and only my desperate flailing attempts to live. I did mange to bob my head above water a few times and swear I can remember seeing Gran Gran as we called our grandfather, coming after me. The main thought in my five year old brain being, “I’m gonna get a spanking for this”.
He’d jumped in with cloths, socks, and one boot. Managed to get me out of the pool and to my surprise I wasn’t in much trouble at all. Seems like he was laughing about it pretty quick, and just glad I was OK.
Submit your own stories in comments or got to the Contact section and submit it there.
