This is my post for #freewriters 2626 prompt director of the movie hosted my
Have you ever looked back on your life and the things you have witnessed? As I look back it seems like I was the director of the movie. Sometimes it felt like a love story, sometimes it was a movie that made you cry, or sometimes it seemed like a horror flick, there were times it was a history channel movie, and sometimes it was a funny film. Sometimes it seemed like an episode of the show Survivor, "strong like bull" is what my Mother would say.
Growing up at a campground that sat on an inlet was all of the movies tied into one. Before my parents split up, you could call it a love story for a child it was one of the happiest times of my life. I had both of my parents and an awesome place to grow up.
As a child, it could have been a movie about child labor laws and how they were broken, but I think it also instilled in us a good work ethic, we had to work keeping the campground clean. We cleaned the campsites after a camper left, cleaned the bathrooms, worked catching shrimp for the store, worked in the store, and loaded 55 gallon steel drums full of trash onto a trailer that Dad pulled behind his truck, he never got out of the truck. If we got into trouble, we were given a basket and we had to fill it with sand spurs with roots still attached.
I think I was 8 or 9 years old when I saved an old man's life. He was sitting in a chair on this dock. When he cast his fishing pole out his chair folded and he went in the water. I was standing next to him and could only think about how my Dad had made all of us kids promise not to jump in the water with someone who was in trouble, he said they would pull us under with them, we were to throw something to them that floated. I had nothing to throw but saw he was going out with the tide right next to the dock. I ran as fast as I could to the east end and climbed down a piling I stuck my leg out to him, I was so scared he could not reach it, but he grabbed my foot and crawled up my leg until he could grab a hold of the dock's piling.
As I was saving this man's life, lives were lost at the west end of the campground, a young boy who could not swim well was caught in the tide, his Uncle ran to save him but dove into shallow water, he broke his neck and passed away. The Aunt tried to save him but she could not swim, she barely survived by Dad giving her mouth to mouth, their young daughter was also caught in the tide but survived. The boy had to have passed by me while I was saving the old man, by then if I had seen him, it would have been too late for me to save him he was underwater, they never found his body. That day was like a horror movie.
The history movie came with the treasure hunters in the 1960s. They found the 1715 Spanish shipwrecks, some within walking distance from my house. They kept their boat at my Dad's dock, this was before Mel Fischer knew about it but somehow he is the one that was known for treasure hunting here, when in truth it was Kip Wagner.
Sometimes Kip Wagner would pay my Dad's dock fee by giving him pieces of eight, Spanish coins from the fleet, some Dad found metal detecting. These are what my Dad left for me. I also have musket balls, buttons, and a buckle from a shoe.
It was a funny film when I think back about Bill, he was our wild boar with 4 inch tusks. He looked mean but was the sweetest thing. When he would get loose the campers would freak out. I was told to put him back in his pen. I would grab him by the ear or if I had a piece of string I would wrap it around his neck and lead him back to his pen. I could hear comments the campers were making as I led him down the road past their campsites. They would say things like, that thing is going to eat her, or some would call me brave, neither was true, Bill would not hurt anything or anyone. When the State took over the inlet and we had to move so Dad sold him, I like to think he was too old to kill and lived out a happy life. The man came back to the inlet before we left and said he had Bill weighed, he was 400 pounds.
Times were good back then. It was a different world than the one we see today. Some things were better, and some were worse, but that is what life is made of. It can not always be a good movie, but you will always be the director of your life story.
photos are mine
