| Wells are for More than Wishing |
| Growing up at the North Greenwich Nursery meant hearing lots of stories from my grandfather. Some stories, like this one, I was to hear many times. Sitting on the back porch washed up for supper, he would begin, "Did I tell you about the time we were digging out the well and I nearly drowned down there?" No Grandpa. "Well, my cousin Rennie vas helping me clean out that hand dug well. It would get dirt down in it and the water got shallow, so ve vould have to dig it oud. "It vas rock-lined, and just narrow enough so I could let myself down pushing my feet on the other side a little at a time. When I vas at the bottom, Rennie would lower a ladder for me to stand on. Then he vould lower a bucket for me to fill, and he vould dump the bucket and send it down again. "Well, this one time there was something wrong. My little ladder was sinking in the soft sand and vouldent stop. I was in trouble. I said, 'Rennie, I'm up to my hips and still going. Quick, throw me the rope.' "What I meant was one end of the rope, of course, so I could pull myself out of the soft muck, or at least stop my sinking. It was like quicksand down there. "But in his excitement vhat does Rennie do but untie the rope from the bucket, coil it up and throw me the whole coiled up thing! There I am sinking fast and I have both ends of the rope down there with me. "I am exhausted by this time, too, but I'm thinking I'm a goner for sure if I don't think of something quick, and then it hits me. I have lowered myself into the well pushing my back against one side with my feet walking down the other. So maybe if I do this I can stop my sinking and even pull myself out. "So, very close to trying out my Lutheran faith, I tilt back my shoulders into the muck like I'm floating in water, and I try to pull my knees up to get my feet on the opposite wall. "I vas a good swimmer in those days but this was not swimming. It vas by now so difficult to move my legs, you know, that I am tiring out. But when I pushed my feet toward the wall it stopped my sinking. I suddenly thought I was not going to die after all. "So that's how I got out of that well—inch by inch I walked up the rock wall. When I got out Rennie was still scared to death, but I vas so tired I couldn't even yell at him. "After a little rest we laughed and laughed. We had a beer together and all vas okay again. That vas a good beer that time, too. "I often think about that time, and how there I vas with nothing but my wits to save me. I wouldn't have made it without having a head on my shoulders before I went in there, I tell you that much." |
| So it seems that you can be level-headed in an emergency, if you were level-headed beforehand. |
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