Pensacola Florida
Oh, the Ocean...what a delight!!
Our Aunt Vesta, better known to us as
Sissy, used to live in Pensacola, Florida with her husband. Uncle Bob was
in the military and stationed there during the late 40's or early 50's.
They were a young couple with no children,
at that time. They had been stationed there for about a year or so before
we went to see them during our vacation. There
were my sisters Judy and Linda, my Mom and Dad, my Grandmother, my Uncle Donny, and
myself.
It was the first time in my life that I
had seen the ocean. What a wonderful sight! How did I know what kind of creatures
and other things lived in that beautiful, cool water!!
I remember that we took a whole day and
went to the ocean. We took picnic stuff, chairs, blankets and toys. We were
all set to have tons of fun......until.....my Uncle Donny got to having his
fun.
The ocean currents are strong, so my grandmother
had me sitting in just enough water to cover my legs and still she had trouble
keeping me from floating away. I was so busy playing with a small bucket
and shovel that I didn't notice anything else going on around me. All of
a sudden this horrible thing landed on my head, and fell forward covering
my eyes and face. I screamed bloody murder, jumped up in a panic, and ran
screaming from the water, totally terrified. It didn't take but just a second
for my grandmother and parents to catch up to me and start to calm me down.
My uncle (who is only 7 years older than myself), had taken a handful of
seaweed and plopped it on top of my head....just being funny. Little did
he know how bad I would freak out......!!
Of course, after some explanations from
my parents, it was funny. I got back into the water with my uncle and we
had a wonderful time.
A little while later, the adults were cooking
our food on the grill. Except my grandmother. She was sitting in the water
watching me play. I found this very interesting playtoy. This creature was
swimming in the water close to me. I stood up and took a step closer to it,
but the creature eased slightly away from me. I stepped closer and bent over
to poke my finger into the water to try to touch the creature. It again eased
away from me and I stepped closer and bent over to poke my finger into the
water to touch it. We did this for awhile as we eased away from grandmother.
I guess we had gotten probably 10 or 12 feet from grandmother when my dad
scooped me up and returned me to her. Grandmother said: "She was doing ok
and hadn't gotten very far". Then my dad told her that the creature that
had me so fascinated was a stingray. My grandmother about had a heart attack.
My dad says that he doesn't really know why it didn't attack me, other than
it somehow knew that I was just a curious child and not any type of threat.
Dad said that when I poked the water with my finger to touch it, that probably
startled it into moving...thank goodness....smile.
We got to take a tour of the base and see
some big ships and eat some fancy foods (that I didn't really like). It turned
out to be a very nice trip.
We got to stay at my Aunt and Uncle's house.
They lived off the base and their house was tiny. But they found plenty of
room for all of us, even though we girls ended up sleeping on a pallet on
the floor. It was still tons of fun.
This picture was taken at "Cold Water Creek" Milton, FL, in 1957. From left
to right: Judy, me in the back, and Linda in the front.
Stories
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