At the time I lived in Newbrunswick, the winters were wild, we would jump off the barn roof down into the soft deep snow. Spending the morning doing this proved to be quite tiring, mainly because I was small, so when landing in the snow my body would sink deep enough it took quite a while to climb back up and out. By the time the task of climbing out of the hole my weight made, and getting back up on the roof and jumping off to start again, I was lucky if I had the pleasure of doing this two times. It would have been nice to of had help in any form given.
But the summers were even better as the weather is warmer and I am not wearing five pounds of clothing to hold me down. Where we lived in Newbrunswick the Grandriver is used to carry logs, floating them down to the mill, we would go out onto these logs and play. Sure it is safe as the logs are so tight together there is no place to fall, and if I did fall, which I never did . . .I am four at the time and didn’t weigh enough to force any change in the tightness of the moving logs. Besides my much older cousin [18] was always there making sure to continuously say,
I remember you
to be carefull or the sharks and electric eels would eat me. I kept myself safe and did what I was told.
But one day . . .Out on my own with a two-year old. We went out and down to the river and got onto the logs, they were moving pretty fast this day and we were floating down the river passing our bridge heading to the bridge which carried the train. Man it is fun out there on the logs without him always telling us we were going to get eat by sharks and eels, and do this, and don’t do that, what a bunch of malarkey if you ask me. Well there we were, two little kids out in the middle of all that and leaving behind us everything we knew, when the logs started to spread as the river widened.
Everything seem to be going just find until my little sister got out of hand and wouldn’t listen to me anymore, she ended up on loose logs and then slipped. Even though she is small the weight of her fall shifted the logs and they closed locking her one leg between them. I tryed to get her free but remember I am only four and the only thought in my head is the sharks and electric eels were going to eat her and Grammy is going to be mad. this I know because when my sister fell in the brook and I didn’t get her out Grammy was very, very up-set at me. I won’t tell you what I thought as I was only little with a little mind, and couldn’t figure why she didn’t float away down the brook . . .But I know why now! She was to heavy for the little brook so she sat there playing in the water. But at four years old I knew this was different and Grammy and everyone would be crazy if she got ate by sharks and eels while I was there.
I did the only thing I could . . .I looked at my little sister after trying to spread the logs, with no success, then told her not to move or the Sharks and eels would eat her, she started to cry, so I warned her to be quiet or they would hear her and eat her and bring more sharks and electric eels, then I reassured her of the fact that she is wearing rubber boots and should be fine if she stayed quiet. I told her, [like all kids] that I was the fastest runner in the world not to worry I would go get our big cousin. I did not know it at the time, But I had a long way to go, we played and floated far from the bridge further from the house.
Needless to say I didn’t fall getting there and our big cousin took off running like a bat out of hell and saved the day. Did we get in trouble? Sure, I did, but not her. And the reason the sharks and electric eels didn’t eat her is because she was to small, so her foot couldn’t reach the water. But it was really because there are no sharks and electic eels in the Grandriver, I know that now. It was a story to keep us away from the water.
Myritingboard 