It was one of those summer days, the temperature was in the 90s and the humidity was an even 100%. Unless you were a kid in Missouri you would not understand how normal that was. I can’t remember who was with me but if I were to guess it was probably Steve. We were riding our bicycles somewhere out in the country. It wasn’t unusual for us to get on the bikes and ride many miles on any given day.
For some reason I think we were around Egypt Mills, but I could be wrong, when we made a dumb decision. As pre-teens, we were allowed to do silly things, and this one was both silly and dangerous. There was a rock bluff which was probably from 75 to 100 feet high, at a turn in the creek. The bluff was almost straight up and we decided to climb it.
We parked our bikes and crossed the creek. The bluff appeared to these two youths, to offer the challenge, “Climb Me!” We were climbing side by side as we scaled the bluff. This was rock climbing the dumb way! Although we had not thought of it, if we were to fall we would not only have been hurt, we could have been killed. The bluff was not a solid rock bluff, it was a rock filled bluff. That means some of the rocks would come loose when we attempted to grab onto them. We would laugh when we found a loose rock, we would toss it down the bluff watching it hit and bounce off the other rocks on its way down, never thinking, that could be our future.
As we climbed, the occasional vehicle would pass, but no one stopped and told us to get down. Steve was climbing to the left side of me about 10 feet away. The top where he was climbing was about 5 feet lower then where I was climbing. Steve grabbed a small bush and pulled himself up onto the top, I still had several feet to go. Steve was sitting on the top and he said, there is a good view from up here. I turned a little and looked behind me, and then down, I should not have done that.
Panic set in. I was very high up and still had several feet to go. I looked for my next hand hold and saw nothing! There is nothing to grab onto, I can’t make it to the top! I looked down to see where I could step in order to start down. I saw nothing to step on. Steve said, climb over here and come up where I did. That 10 feet looked like a mile.
I can’t do it! I am stuck, I can’t go up and I can’t go down! I said it before and I say it again, I was in a state of panic! I was very scared and I was positive I couldn’t make it to the top. I was in more or less a frozen state for a minute or two, although it seemed like an hour.
Would you believe; there was only one thing to do! I could not make it to the top, and I could not climb down, so what could I do. I apprehensively looked down the 70 or so feet to the bottom, at the creek and rocks below as a landing spot, this seemed to be the only choice. There were sharp rocks sticking out of the bluff. I wasn’t thinking about the possibility that I would be hurt, or even killed if I jumped. I thought I might be able to turn, and more or less run, or at least, kind of go down feet first.
A punk kid, riding his bike in the country, who decided to do a stupid thing and climb this rocky bluff, obviously does not make well thought out decisions. Without any more thought I let go and begin to turn away from the bluff. As soon as I began to turn, my right foot slipped and I began the fall. There was a ripping sharp pain in my back, as the jagged rock that I had been standing on ripped through my back. At the same time I actually grabbed another rock and stopped my fall. My back was hurting so bad that I did not realize the rock I had grabbed was very sharp and cutting into my hand. I hung there bleeding and hurting for a few seconds and then my hand just let go. My fall was now head first when I hit the…
That is not how it happened, I did start with, would you believe! Back to the real story.
From somewhere within me I begin to calm down. I looked around and saw my next hand hold. I thought, I can do this. I used it to pull up some and then I found a foot hold. Little by little I moved toward the top. Finally, I was able to get a secure hold on some brush at the top and pull myself up.
We sat there for a while on the top of this bluff. We did not have to climb down as the bluff was probably only 100 feet wide at the creek level. We were able to walk down the hill on the side of the bluff.
There are two points to the true portion of this story. One, Kids do stupid things without thinking of the possible consequences. Two, the “Can do attitude, aka positive attitude”, will help you calm down and accomplish most of your quests.
As I have said in the past, a positive attitude can help or hurt, it depends on you!
I am positive I can’t do that, or I am positive I can do that. It is up to you!
Don Ford
v “Would you believe” or “WUB”, most often means, the truth may be over looked in the following statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment