The Day I Drowned

Spoiler Alert! : In the end it turned out OK you see as I'm still alive (assuming that that is OK to you that I'm still alive :)

Charlene asked that I tell the story of how I drowned in the kiddie pool at the Standing Stone State Park.

Most of what I remember about it, I don't remember, and what I do remember I remember from a distinctly different perspective than everyone else does … but … here goes:

After my parents moved to Ohio from Alaska, mother was able to visit her family in Celina every year for several weeks to several months. In the warm time of the year, we would usually go at least once (or more) to the swimming pool at the Standing Stone State Park which I remember as being hours and hours away; however, in the '60s I was in the 0 to 8 year age range so my sense of time was somewhat different than it is now. (It's actually about 14 miles or less than 1/2 hour). Seems like we most always stopped at the Dairy Queen after swimming on the way back to town.

The day I drowned in the kiddie pool I remember sitting beside the large pool where everyone was busy diving, swimming, conversing, and sunbathing. Later I wandered over to the kiddie pool and there was no one there at all. I enjoyed having the whole pool to myself. I remember the water in the kiddie pool was rather deep, somewhere between my knees and waist. Since I'm sure it's at most about a foot or so deep, I'm guessing that I was probably somewhere between 2 and 4 years old. At some time while I was playing in the pool I thought it would be fun to lay down on the bottom of the pool and watch the surface of the pool. I think this is probably where I was/what I was doing when somebody/everybody found me. I of course didn't realize that I was missing as I knew exactly where I was the whole time.

Most of the following I don't know and have only heard partly second hand years later after the fact (this would be a good point for any relatives with the missing detail to chime in with some info).

Apparently, some time after I wandered off to the kiddie pool, someone noticed that I was missing. At first everyone started frantically looking everywhere, trying to see if I was around the pool somewhere, had gone off to one of the bathrooms, or was laying at the bottom of the big pool where they couldn't see me. I guess for a little while no one thought to look at the kiddie pool since no one was over there (except for me of course). I guess that my mother must have been in quite a panicked state as Jane Helen said that they thought they may have to resuscitate her. Eventually, after looking everywhere where everyone was and not finding me, someone thought to look over by the kiddie pool where no one was and low-and-behold, there I was laying at the bottom of the kiddie pool. I guess I managed to survive with minimal brain damage, or at least whatever there was all have been kind enough to not point out to me.

Anyone with more detail to add, please do!