Canarsie

Simon my sister’s uncle also known as "whitey" because he always wore a white T-shirt, and "shimmy" a nick-name he got in prison. Simon liked to go fishing, but like I said that costs money. So, the cheapest way to go fishing was to take a subway and bus and fish off  the Canarsie Pier off of Jamaica bay, Brooklyn,

I myself was not fond of fishing off the pier with a cheap fishing pole and some fish scraps, I did however enjoy anytime I could be near the ocean. Off to the left of the pier was a small beach, but adjacent to that was a landfill of compacted trash, it was known as "New York’s dirtiest beach".

I really didn’t think about how polluted the water was, so on hot days I went in the water to cool off. Horseshoe crabs use to congregate adjacent to the pier in what looked like mating season. Horseshoe crabs are my opinion quite ugly. So, I use to throw rocks at them trying to crack their shell and kill them. I never succeeded to cracking their surprisingly hard shell.

On one exceptionally hot day I decided to go into the water, but not too deep because I didn’t know how to swim. I met a boy on the small beach who was there with his Dad. We played around in the water for a while. We then spotted a large black telephone pole floating in the water and I grabbed onto it for what I though would be a fun ride. As I grabbed onto the pole I felt the enormous weight and power of the pole pulling me further out into the bay, I became really frightened and yelled to the boy to get his Dad. The telephone pole seemed so deceptive, it floated ever  so gently in the water but its enormous mass was evident when I held onto it. As the pole bobbed in the gentle waves it knocked me off. I was now in about eight feet of water and quickly began sinking to the bottom. The ocean water was surprising clear, you could see about eight feet. I thrashed my arms and legs in an attempt to reach the surface but failed. Time was quickly running out when all of a sudden I saw a large white object wiggling towards me, I thought it was a large fish, but it was the boy's Dad. He grabbed me under my arms and brought me to the surface and then to the shore. I sat hunched over on the beach and coughed up salt water, I really didn't say anything being still traumatized by what had just happened.

Somehow Simon saw what was going and was running towards us. He kneeled down next to me and asked me if I was alright, I shook my head and said yes. We sat there for a few moments when he said for me to get back in the water, I looked at him in astonishment and said no! He explained to me not to fear the ocean, but to respect it. I think back now on how profound it is that if I had died my daughter Stephanie and son Michael would have never been born. The butterfly effect of life and death.