I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.
Jumping into Big Bear Lake when I didn't know how to swim
Back in 1984, I was 14 years old my mom, me, my younger brother, uncle Jack and his wife, Wanda decided to take a vacation weekend trip to Big Bear, California. Wanda's daughter who was a year younger than me came too. My family loved Big Bear so we went there quite a few times. They also rented a pontoon boat. We all went out on the boat one day and we were all wearing the big orange life jackets, which I was grateful for since I didn't know how to swim.
My brother and Wanda's daughter knew how to swim and they both jumped into the lake wearing their life vests. They were both egging me on to jump in since I was wearing a life jacket too. My uncle Jack told me that it would keep me afloat and both of the other kids stopped moving to show me that the vests kept them above the water. So I decided to be unpredictable and do something unusual for me and I jumped in. The life jacket kept me afloat and I had a good time until I felt seaweed wrapping around my ankle.
My uncle and Wanda helped me get back on the boat, thankfully there was a short metal ladder on the side of the boat that I was able to climb onto and with some help was able to get back on the boat. My mom told me she was really surprised that I jumped into the lake since I didn't like deep water and Big Bear Lake is so dark you can't see into at all. I didn't know that the lake was around 70 feet deep either or I might not have jumped in. But I had a good time, I always liked going there.
Links to past stories
2023
