RAMBLINGS 5 (Water Skiing 1948, Lake George)
(In 1948 I was playing in a band in Lake George, N.Y. when the incident described below occurred.)
A young Canadian and his bride were honeymooning at Lake George that summer. He became intrigued with water skiing, and since he was a proficient wintertime skier, he decided to give it a try. He struck up an acquaintance with a boat owner who agreed to tow him. It was decided that the easiest approach to his first water skiing experience was to start him from a seated position on the dock, with his skis on the surface of the water.
(In 1948 there were no safety laws, such as the requirement that all skiers wear life jackets or belts, and every towing boat have two occupants when pulling a skier.)
And so the great experiment began. The boat driver slowly pulled the Canadian off the dock to and upright position on the skis and gunned the engine. The novice water skier's legs were sure and steady and thus his new experience began. I can't tell you how long it lasted, but I do know they managed to get out a good distance from the shoreline of beautiful Lake George.
The Canadian young man was handling the skiing admirably for a good while. But then it happened. The boat driver, who had been looking forward and backward intermittently suddenly discovered that he was towing nothing but a rope. The skier was gone! The driver began circling in search of a bobbing head, but could find only two widely separated skis on the water's surface. He raced the boat to the shore for help, and discovered a distraught young bride. Only then, he discovered to his utter horror that his Canadian skier was a non-swimmer! A search party soon recovered his body. This is a hard-to-believe, but true story.
