To Hear Them Tell It, I Almost Drowned

To hear them tell it, I almost drowned. (Them, being my family)  But my story is the true account of the events.  Here is the same story told in two very different ways:

Their story--The water was rushing so fast through the ditch.  Some how Carmen (my elder sister of 3 years) grab yours legs as you fell off the bridge.  She yelled for your dad for help as your head bounced around in and out of the rapids.  When your dad arrived we pulled you from your certain watery doom.  Hip hip hooray.  Carmen saved Shane again.  She had saved me once.  You can read about that here: http://inshanesbrain.blogspot.com/search?q=I%27m+still+alive

My much more boring true event story:  I was probably 6 or 7 when this occurred.  There we were, Carmen, Shawn (he's my twin brother), me and our neighbor Caroline (she's the same age as Carmen) standing on the bridge on a warm summer day. (the bridge was actually 2 railroad ties thrown over a 6 foot wide creek. Now Caroline had a pack of Fruit Stripe gum.  You know the kind with a zebra on the pack.  Anyway, We were all chewing a piece.  Then, Caroline says, "whoever wants the last piece has to spit theirs out."  Well, I wanted the last piece.  So I arched my back, then sprung forward and proceed to launch the gum out of my mouth.  The only problem was that I launched myself right off the bridge. (I may have even done a flip, I don't remember it happened to fast) I landed butt side down in about 2 inches of trickling water.  Someone yelled for my dad and he pulled me out.  And that's it.

Through the years, this tale has gotten larger and larger but I can shoot their story down with this one fact.  If you know my mom, then you would also know that there is no way, absolutely none, no chance in hell, that my mom lets me or any of us around that creek if Thunder River was raging through it.    The defense rests!

Occasionally, I will run across Fruit Stripe gum.  It always brings to mind that day.  And I wonder, "How in the world did I launch myself off of that bridge? 

P.S.  I'm still waiting for that last piece of gum