steve n carol
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- May 8, 2004
- Messages
- 459
This story takes place in Central Louisana, In a beauitful bayou in Avoylles parish. I was about 17 when my mother's sister's family came down for a visit from California. <br />It was summertime and I was out of school and being lazy, which was a good thing at the time. My father's being at work, allowed me to be the tour guide for my uncle and my cousin from the west coast. So hitching up the boat, (a little jon boat w/a merc 9.9), the three of us headed down to Spring Bayou. A beauitful place! The water lillies, (don't know what kind, but the flowers were purple and stood up about foot above the water line). This looked like a carpet that streched as far as you could see. I cruised my relitives around for a while. We went into this part where the channel was narrow. Snakes were in the trees, snakes were in the water, snakes were on the bank, big rats, (nuitry), (sp), were swimming and running around, saw some pigs and alagators too, my relitives were kinda creeped out. Motoring to a location where we were going to fish, we passed by this gator sunning himself. I suppose he was 10-12 feet long. I had never seen one from that close. So like any 17 year old, I made a u turn and went back and for a closer look. And like any 17 year old, I was telling my uncle and cousin to be carefull and not spook him and make him mad, (the gator), I was teasing them, on the square. Telling them that they have been known to capsise small boats and attack and hurt, uasally the smallest, HA! my 12 year old cousin! My uncle told me to "knock it off!" There were tears in my cousin's eyes as we approached the gator on the bank. We passed by him at an idle. When we did this he opened his mouth and hissed, we were so close we thought we smelled his breath! The gator ran into the water, straight at us! My cousin squealed. I saw the gator pass under the boat and go downstream, (let it be known now, even I was scared). My uncle, pissed by now, said, "let's get out of here". so we motored upstream about an 1/8th of a mile. There were some small cypress trees sticking out of the water about 5'.<br />I saw 2 of these trees that were about 10' apart. I figured we could tie up to these, (front and back) and fish a hole towards the bank, or into the channel. So we did. <br />All was good for about 15 minutes... <br />This Bass boat comes flying by, (in the channel), which is about 80' wide. No problem. <br />At this time the 3 of us were discussing the consiquences of hitting "that gator" at that speed, when all of a sudden, I was swarmed by a hundred 'red wasps'!! Seems that there was a nest in that one cypress tree that I had tied to! when the bass boat passed by, his wake/s was bumping us in to the trunk of that tree! So there I was, a hollerin' and carryin' on. Waving my arms with hat in hand! Now my uncle, and his 12 year old son, didn't see the wasps all around me. My uncle wears glasses that he didn't have on and the tears in my cousins eyes prevented him from this trauma. However, they did see me abandon ship! These two were my charge, and it was my sworn blood duty to throw myself between them and danger from man or beast. I slipped the 'butchers knot' off of the rear cypress tree, swam to the front of the boat to pull my fair to safety..gator or not, (I saw him go downstream), all the time yelling for him, my uncle, to untie tie the boat. My uncle thought I was just goofing around trying to scare him again, my cousin was crying, and I was unting the front of the boat... If I told you that we all jumped into the water that day, this wouldn't be true. Nobody got stung! And I did, single handedly, rescue them/us, from a fate worse than death, (thoughts of a 17 year old), and they will never know! <br /><br />When we got back to the dock, there was a boat, on the trailer, and a station wagon, and all kinds of dibris floating around, in the water, (kinda floating), and someone yelling at another man, "I TOLD YOU TA CHOCK DA WHEEL!"<br />But thats another story!....sl
