When I was in 4th grade, we moved to Douglasville. The neighboring girls close to my age and I became immediate friends. Loretta and Elaine Cook lived across the street, but this story is about my friendship with Dovie Lynn Key (Lynn), who lived next door with her grandma and grandpa, Mr. & Mrs. Boss.
Lynn’s parents lived on Bolton Rd. in Atlanta. Lynn’s dad was Jack. Yep. Jack Key.
Mrs. Key would get Lynn on the weekend every few weeks and every once in a while, they would invite me to go. (It wasn’t slummy back then).
Even as a kid I always wanted to live in a big city, and it just thrilled me to be able to be in an Atlanta apartment for the weekend. Just like in the movies! LOL
Mrs. Key would take us to do the most exciting things like the movies (my first in a theater) and roller skating which was the first time I’d ever been to a real roller skating rink. AND I got to go swimming for the first time in a real swimming pool … not the creek.
Anyway, before they demolished the old and built the new, every time I drove by that complex, I think about the day when I was about 9 years old and nearly drowned in the pool.
That experience of almost drowning proved to me that, when you’re about to die, your whole life really does flash before your eyes in a split second. That day, I was so close to drowning I wasn’t even aware I was being rescued.
I don’t remember anything other than jumping in the water, going straight to the bottom and trying to bounce up and down out of the deep end, waving my arms and sucking in water when I yelled, “Help! Help!” and then seeing the light disappear.
That’s when the “lightning flashes” started and I saw my life pass before my eyes in a nano second. Then, nothing.
Suddenly, I opened my eyes and was lying on the concrete next to the pool with the lifeguard bending over me. When he saw I was ok, he yelled at me for 5 minutes for jumping in the water without knowing how deep it was.
Best lesson ever, and I’m sure he did it just for that reason to make sure I understood how serious it was. And for any other kids who were listening and saw what had happened probably insured this was a memorable close call to them, too.
When the pool was getting ready to close and Lynn and I had to go, I went over to the lifeguard and apologized for causing trouble. I thought I had done something terribly wrong which I had but I felt so guilty, I went over and apologized to him.
He was very nice and spent about 5 minutes showing me and Lynn pool safety tips like how to always test the water’s depth first by hanging on to the sides and seeing how far down our feet would go.
I’ve never forgotten that. And again, I remember that day just like it was yesterday every single time I had to drive by those apartments. It’s actually kind of a neat memory. Especially because every single time I went to those apartments I had some of the best times of my life up to that moment. lol
That night, Mr. and Mrs. Key were there, and I told her I needed to tell her something. I was so embarrassed and felt so stupid for nearly drowning that it was very hard for me to tell her but I felt like I had to. When I finished telling her, her face softened because I don’t think she expected what I said. She just patted my shoulder and said she was glad I was safe.
She told my mother later that I was the most grateful child she had ever seen in her entire life. She told Mother what she’d said to me when she finally said I didn’t have to thank her for every single thing from a cookie to a glass of water. She would assume I was appreciative.
This is another short story, but it was Mr. Boss who got tickets for me and Lynn to be on the TV show “The Popeye Club” as members of The Peanut Gallery.
Whenever they were going to play a game, all the kids would start waving their hands pick me pick me and I did too. Officer Don pointed right at me and said, “You with the bow in your hair, cone on over!”
I played ooey gooey which is when you pick a paper bag and put your hand inside. You either got an early which was a really neat present or you got a gooey which was your hand in maple syrup or something like that and sand and you had to get cleaned up before you could go back to your seat. I got ooey gooey but I did get a consolation prize of silly putty, crazy foam, and one more thing that I can’t remember what it was.
Good times… Good times! 🙂
