Peter Walked on Water, Larry Did Cartwheels

 The other day I had a flash back to an eventful day at the river.  I do not spend much time in the river since I saw the movie Jaws.  You notice I said in the river.  As a kid, I never gave a second thought to jumping into a creek, pond, river, or lake, but the movie Jaws changed all that.

It is a good thing I had never seen the movie when I dove into the lake at Rainbow City.  I went running down the pier and took a dive that would have been the envy of most Olympic swimmers.  My brother-in-law Tony and cousins said when I dove in the river, the shad jumped out.  The sight was hilarious.  I know what you are thinking, but I was tall and lanky back then and the lake was large.

When I surfaced, Tony and his cousins were screaming in excitement.  I was clueless to what was happening, but when those shad were trying to get away from me, they were striking my boney legs and I thought I had jumped into a school of piranha.  I panicked and got out as quick as I could.

I have always wanted a home on a creek, pond, river, or lake.  It is soothing and tranquil watching the water.  Sometimes when I had the time, I would spend a few moments of solitude watching the Tombigbee River flowing through Demopolis.  Watching the river is therapeutic, especially at night and eating a Big Jack, fries, and hot apple pie.

I remember the Montgomery riverboat ride the night we had a class reunion.  Seeing the lights as we approached Montgomery on the Alabama River will always hold my memory as that romantic moment unfolded.  It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day with classmates.

I spent most of my summer Sundays after church at Bulldog Bend on the little Cahaba River.  At Bulldog Bend there was a swing hanging from a tree overlooking the bend in the river.  In the middle of the bend was a platform made of metal drums and wood.  It was held in place by two cables attached to another cable that spanned the river.

To swing meant to climb a two-stage platform built beside the tree.  The swing looked like a triangle mounted on a rectangle with a center bar.  My friend JJ, from another story, had mastered the art of exiting the swing before it peaked and could sail through the air, baggies flopping in the wind, out to the platform.  Another friend, Butch, slapped the platform on his way down.

Swinging on the tree swing was difficult.  My friend, “Butter Bean,” did not have enough arm strength to swing from the tree platform.  The downward force was too great and Butter Bean would bounce and flop off the bank into the river.

The floating platform was about ten feet square.  That is where the girls watched the boys display their aerobatic skills as the exited the swing.  The guys watched the girls.  Ultimately, someone would want to play king of the floating platform.  It is the water version of “king of the hill.”  Someone would grab the two cables that anchored the platform and start it to rocking.  Eventually it would turn upside down.

One Sunday I was on the float when someone turned it over.  As went flying backwards, the two cables that held it in place trapped my outstretched arms and legs to the upside down float.  I took gasps of air each time I bobbed to the surface.  I'm glad God had a plan for me.

Talk about flying through the air.  Let me get to that eventful day at the river.  One summer around a weekend or two before or after Independence Day, my buddies, Donnis, Larry, Rickey, Tony, and I were skiing on Lay Lake.  We happened upon some classmates that invited us to try their slalom board.  Don, one from their group, was a master at the slalom board.  George, another one of their group, had a souped-up ski rig that would fly.  Don and George would ride the board as the boat did a “pop the whip” move.  They could circle the boat twice, sometimes almost three times.

They invited us to try.  Our group could not ride it sitting down.  Tony and I decided, with a little encouragement I might add, to ride the slalom board together as George and his crew “popped us on the whip.”

The first time Tony and I sailed around the ski boat we thought we had it made.  That was until my leg slipped off the slalom board and swiped Tony off like a cartoon character.  I can still hear Tony yelling, “LEAN, LEAN, LEAN” as we disappeared into the cold murky waters. After a third attempt, we were able to circle the boat.

My cousin Larry went solo.  For some reason, I think it my have been to show off to the bathing beauties on the bank, George “popped the whip” with Larry towards the public landing.  What happened next is unbelievable.  When George slung Larry around the boat, Larry did three cartwheels on top of the water before plunging into the Lay Lake.  We feared that he was going to cartwheel onto shore.

Every time I read about Peter walking on the Sea of Galilee, I think of Larry cart wheeling on Lay Lake.

 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.  And he said, Come.  And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus (Matthew 14:28-29 KJV).