rkd1119
07-10-2009, 09:57 PM
It's probably March or April 1995. My best friend Patrick Parrish and I took my '76 Baja 16SS to Little Miami (below Selmalia, on the Alabama) for an early season shakedown. The air was nice (75 or so), but the water was frigid (maybe 50). We took my then 2 1/2 yr old son John with us (what were his mother and grandma thinking?). We ran awhile and stopped on the sandbar to drink a brew or two and think philosophical thoughts (yeah, right hahahaha). John proceeded to run up and down the beach, first on the sand, then splashing in the shallow water, then.....PLOOSH, he went head over heels in the water. Patrick reached over and fished him out, I expected him to be gasping for breath from the cold, never bothered him in the least (he must have been switched at birth with some kid from Alaska, and somewhere some poor kid is freezing his nuts off 7 months out of the year).
John continued to play and finally started swimming around. I couldn't get in over my ankles without gasping. We went back to the marina with John stuffed up under the dash, wearing my and Partick's dry shirts (while we shook like two heroin addicts going cold turkey). We got home after drying him off with none the wiser.
I take his little brother Grant (now 4) with is, but John has grown up (almost 17) and WILL go, but is more interested in his own friends and activities. I miss those days. His mother and I never went boating a lot, but I took John with me 97% of the time. He was just one of the gang.
I've got a nicer boat now, I make a lot more money, but I don't have any more fun than I did then.
John continued to play and finally started swimming around. I couldn't get in over my ankles without gasping. We went back to the marina with John stuffed up under the dash, wearing my and Partick's dry shirts (while we shook like two heroin addicts going cold turkey). We got home after drying him off with none the wiser.
I take his little brother Grant (now 4) with is, but John has grown up (almost 17) and WILL go, but is more interested in his own friends and activities. I miss those days. His mother and I never went boating a lot, but I took John with me 97% of the time. He was just one of the gang.
I've got a nicer boat now, I make a lot more money, but I don't have any more fun than I did then.