I guess my first brush with danger, first I can remember anyway, would be somewhere between 3 and 5 years old. We had just or were in the process of moving from Ottawa to Merrickville, and Dad was showing me around. I think we went to the library and the bank and then went to check out the locks that cut through town.
I remember Dad talking to the lock master as I went to check out the massive stone basin, filled to the brim with cold Rideau River. I remember clearly hearing Dad say “don’t sit so close” and “don’t splash your feet in the water” which is exactly I did which tells you all you need to know about me as a kid.
What happened next must’ve happened fast because I was in and out of the water before I had a chance to take any in. I was up on the shore no worse the wear – Dad had fished me out (by the hair, he says) on my first bob back to the surface. I don’t remember being scared or hurt or anything, and I went back to swim in that basin hundreds of times growing up – but given how many kids we lose each summer to back yard pools it was pretty dangerous, and I was pretty lucky my Dad was right there.
No, no, not the hair, by the shoulders on your shirt!
Oops, creative license!
It was your shirt…. At that moment I was sitting beside you trying to gently tell you to take care. In an instant you were gone. The next instant I had you out. But it was a lesson (as much to me) in just how fast these things can happen…..