The Mormor Stories: Swimming in the Eel River

In honor of the fantastic performances of Michael Phelps and the U.S. Olympic Swim Team this week in Beijing, here are three of Mormor's stories about swimming.  Mormor's family lived at the edge of Humboldt County's Eel River, and the three kids learned to swim in its waters.

(Photo stolen from these guys)

My brother, Art, and I were allowed to go swimming in Eel River (which was one of the borders of our ranch), so eventually we thought we were good enough at it to show off for our mother. One afternoon Art and I coaxed her to come down to the river to watch us swim. We equipped her with cushions for comfortable sitting and an old black umbrella for shade.

At first we just swam up and back in water only about four feet deep. Then we told her we could swim under water too, so we showed off our prowess in that area, being careful not to stay under water very long. We knew if we frightened her about this it would be the end of our swimming.

On the other side of the river a ledge ran out over a pool that was about eight feet deep, and it was there we had practiced our diving. We should have known better but couldn't resist diving off of the ledge. Fortunately, Mama didn't know how deep the water was, and all was well until I stayed under for a few seconds after my dive. Dear Mama rushed out into the water to save me (as she thought), though she couldn't swim at all. Luckily I surfaced before she got out more than a few feet. All the time Art was yelling, "She's all right! I can see her swimming!"

Needless to say, you can guess who didn't get to go swimming again until we faithfully promised that we would never, never go over to the other side of the river. That was a mighty hard promise to keep, but we did until we were teenagers, and better swimmers, too.

But clearly, Mormor, it was a good idea that your mother banned you from that diving ledge, because what have we here? The following tale obviously occurred at an earlier date, and nearly resulted in a tragedy . . .

A ledge over a deep pool in the river near our ranch nearly was my brother's and my undoing, as both of us could easily have lost our lives there. About eight inches of water ran over the ledge, but still it made quite a good diving board from which to practice our skills.

One time Art dove and must have hit his head on a rock, for I could see him just lying on the bottom of the pool. So I dove down and fished him up by his hair. (I didn't know a thing about holds for my own safety.) Just as I got him back nearly over the ledge, Art began to come to and fight, so it was all I could do to finish pulling him up over the projection and still keep his nose out of the water. Very soon Art began to cough and spit up water, so all was well.

We didn't dare tell anyone about it.

Finally, skipping ahead a few years to Mormor's teen years . . .

(Photo stolen from alaspoorwho on Flickr)

While I'm on the subject of swimming, one night we teenagers had a swimming party and marshmallow roast at a favorite hole in the river at South Fork. As we were sitting by the fire the boys began to tell how they'd stolen watermelons from a nearby farm. One story led to another until Elmer Fulwider began to tell how he had sneaked up the cherry tree row almost to Old Man Holmgren's house to get the best cherries. Immediately there was loud laughter and it was a few moments before Elmer realized Old Man Holmgren's daughter was sitting right beside him!

Comments

[foolery]

A few notes . . .

Auds an Mental P Mama, I love that photo, too. It's the second time I've used it, because the first time I thought the girl was Mormor's sister Eileen. Oops.

CBW, there are still a lot of things Humboldt County doesn't have, but I THINK they have 911.

Sarah, I think your elder son is too sweet-natured to ever get into trouble. Your little one looks like a catfood-eating charmer that you'd better keep your eye on!

Wreke, no eels in the Eel River. Not as far as you know.

Suz, just to clarify, the words are entirely Mormor's. I just provide a few in-between words.

San Diego Momma, Elmer Fulwider is the real name, and it appears at least twice in Mormor's writings. And Old Man Holmgren was my great-grandfather -- Mormor's father.

My favorite part of these stories is how Mormor thinks like a child, even when she wrote this in her 70s or 80s. You can see that she still took glee in getting away with stuff -- and she was relating these stories to her impressionable grandchildren, too. :)

Thanks for reading, everybody!

Laurie

[San Diego Momma]

Elmer Fulwider and Old Man Holmgren?

Are these real names?

Really?

They are?

I am now 100% addicted to the Mormor Stories.

[Suz]

I love these stories.
You tell them so well.
They have the feeling of a screenplay. I would cast a young Timothy Hutton and a young Elizabeth McGovern.

[Auds]

I love the photo of Mormor and Art.

After reading this I realized this must be the stuff youth is made off...as eldest came home and told me off jumping off of rocks and into the water at the quarry. I just about had a heartastroke! But then I read the second Mormor story and went ahead and had my heartastroke!

[wrekehavoc]

amazing stories. jut makes me wonder when my kids will do some insane, life-threatening activity and wait to tell me about it until i'm, uh, i dunno. heavily medicated at the home perhaps?

btw, are there eels in the eel river?

[Ok, Where Was I?]

That second one is so scary--to think what kids do and don't tell. Even though I threw snowballs at a cop car and he stopped and yelled at me and my brothers and we didn't tell our parents until we were adults, I still like to think that these secret activities will play no part in my boys' lives. Yep, I'm pretty big into denial when it comes to parenting.

[Chesapeake Bay Woman]

They certainly led eventful lives. Imagine how lucky her brother was to have "come to" as I am sure there were no 911 services in Humbold County at the time.

I once dove into shallow surf in Virginia Beach as a stupid, beer-drinking teenager. Beer and surf do not mix, fyi. My head mixed quite nicely with the sandy bottom, however, and I had a nice scar on my forehead for months afterwards. It could have been worse....lucky my vertebrae are still intact.

[Mental P Mama]

That photograph of Mormor and Art is exquisite. I love these stories, and am glad she made it to talk about it!