THE DAY DADDY JUMPED INTO THE
RED RIVER
It was a Sunday in 1950 or 1951. It was spring. Just after Easter. We were living in the Paradise community on the Pineville side of the Red River. We moved there when I was four and stayed until I finished the third grade. Our church, Emmanuel Baptist, was downtown on the Alexandria side. There were six of us. Four free-range children…well, three. Jane was a baby.We were running late for church.
I must
have been seven or eight years old and Becky around nine. Mama was already frazzled. She had put a pot roast in the oven on low to
cook while we were at church, and in the process, while herding us, had spilled
flour all over her dress, slipped on some cooking oil on the floor while
shooing the dog making her twist her ankle.
She was yelling for us to hurry and get to the car while wiping off the
flour and rubbing her ankle. Daddy was
already honking the horn which made her yell at us more.
Becky slowly walked to the car reading a
book. Baby Jane was crying in her crib,
I was fully dressed but barefoot. My
brother, Bobby, six, was no where to be found.
Mama yelled for daddy to stop honking that horn. It didn’t help.
She was close to becoming a patient at a
mental hospital.
Hobbling around and shouting, “Get in the
car. Now! I don’t care if you’re
barefooted. Where’s Bobby. Someone grab
Jane and make her stop crying. Cecil, we are coming. Nippy find your socks and shoes. Where is Bobby. I must teach Sunday school and need to be in
a good mood. Who’s missing? You kids are
driving me crazy. STOP HONKING THAT HORN!”
At last, she found Bobby, and my shoes while
ushering us out the door. Still fussing
a mile, a minute.
We managed to get into the car without
much trouble. We were off and daddy stopped honking the horn. The six of us were crammed into the car. I sat in the middle of the back seat, shoving
sister Becky to move over because I needed more room. She ignored me and continued to read. Jane was in the front seat with mama and Bobby
was crawling around the floor under our feet and irritating us. There were whines of “Mama, Bobby’s bothering
me. Mama Becky won’t move over.” She had had enough and began reaching, with
her free hand, into the back seat trying to swat whoever was kicking the front
seat. “You children are going to be the
death of me yet. It’s Sunday! Can’t you at least behave for one day? I’m a mess already and I must teach Sunday
School and the lesson is Children obey your parents! You heathens would cause Jesus to go crazy. And, Cecil, honking that horn doesn’t help…”
All
this bedlam was going on when we reached the river. We barely got on the bridge when the traffic
stopped. People were getting out of
their cars and looking over the railings.
“Something must be wrong,” daddy said.
Becky, looking up from her book said,
“There’s a boat acting funny. Look,
daddy. Some people are in the water.”
There was a boat circling round and round with no people in it. It was making larger and larger circles. People were standing on the riverbank and
doing nothing. Daddy got out and looked. He saw the two people floundering in the
current of the river with no one trying to rescue them. People were just yelling and pointing.
He threw off his shoes and his suit coat
as he ran across the bridge, yelling at us to stay in the car. He rushed past people shoving them out of his
way. When he got to the levee, he tore off his tie and
began removing his pants while hopping on one foot and shouting for people to
move. One man in the water was going
under.
AND THIS IS WHEN DADDY JUMPED INTO THE
RIVER!
Diving into the water, he swam toward the
two in trouble. Daddy dove under and found the man that was sinking and brought
him to shore. He went back and grabbed
the other man and brought him to the edge.
It took some effort to rescue the
men, but he managed to get them to the banks of the river where others helped
pull them up to safety.
Daddy was quite tired and out of breath,
but he quickly grabbed his pants and rushed back to our car picking up his
clothes as he returned. It happened so
fast that people weren’t sure what happened.
People were looking around wanting to thank the rescuer who seems to
have disappeared. The police arrived. The
traffic began moving, daddy got dressed and we drove on to church. Letting us out he said that we didn’t need to
say anything about what happened, that they would find out soon enough.
The
next day the newspaper had a picture of him running up the levee with the
headline, “Mysterious man saves people from drowning.”
People did recognize him, and he was
eventually awarded a medal from the mayor.
