11 August 2021
Life has a way of throwing challenges at you. Believe me, I’ve been challenged a lot in my 72 years. One challenge sticks with me over a lot of others because it was a challenge I put own myself.
I was a late comer to the Boy Scouts. I think I joined Troop 28 in Morton when I was 15 years old – older than most and a little embarrassing to join as a Tenderfoot (the initial rank you attempt). After a few years, I found myself ready to try for Eagle Scout – the epitome of achievement in Scouting. There was, however, one major roadblock – lifesaving merit badge. If I remember correctly, you had to earn 21 merit badges for Eagle and some were required – lifesaving among the required.
I’ve related about my experiences with water at different times in this blog – the near drowning on three separate occasions – and learning to swim with lessons from the Methodist minister’s wife. However, earning a lifesaving merit badge was serious business and it was the roadblock to most scouts trying for Eagle.
We were only allowed to attempt the badge by going to Camp Kickapoo in Clinton, Mississippi and since our troop only went for one week of the summer, your opportunities to complete the merit badge were limited to a few years. Added to that was the seriousness the Andrew Jackson Council took their lifesaving merit badge program at Kickapoo. All of the counselors on the waterfront were either Red Cross certified or had their Scout Lifeguard certification. You were going to be put through the wringer with the camp program.
I was an OK swimmer. After my cousin Jo taught me how to get out to the diving board at Roosevelt State Park by swimming on my back, I was eventually able to make it with the American crawl. As kids, we would play around the diving board and it wasn’t long before I could make it out and back without any trouble. The real problem was that my swimming ability at the time was not going to make it for the merit badge at Kickapoo.
My Scoutmaster was H.D. Polk. He managed a hatchery for one of the chicken companies in Morton. He was a no nonsense type of person and came across as very strict but with a real streak of humanity in him. His wife, if anything, was better educated than he. He went to Mississippi State and majored in agriculture (he was a life-long State basketball fan – he would listen to the games during campouts). I think his wife must have majored in liberal arts. She was the most educated person I’d met at that time. She could talk on any subject in depth. I suspect her major was literature from some of the conversations I had with her.
Hiram Polk had three sons. I remember two of the three: Don and Danny. Don was the youngest and the “bad boy” of the family. He was always lipping off to his Dad (never his Mom) and it was probably because he was more like his Dad in temperament. He had a way of getting under Hiram’s skin. Danny was the older of the two and had been in the military. He was more like his Mom and more laid back.
In any case, Mr. Polk knew I was not ready for lifesaving at Kickapoo. He told Don that Don was going to teach me and Buzz Shoemaker lifesaving so that we would be able to pass at Kickapoo. Don kicked up a fuss but reluctantly agreed. I suspect his Dad paid him to take on me and Buzz. Don took no prisoners.
During our first session at Roosevelt, he had us swim around the boundaries of the swim area. When we got close to the pier at the end of the swim, he jumped in on me and grabbed me to pull me under. Not only was I tired from the swim but I hadn’t fully taken in his instruction on how to break a hold from a panicked swimmer. He finally realized I was close to drowning and released me. Buzz was next. I figured we were done for the day after that but no, we had to swim the perimeter again and again.
Slowly, over the early summer, Buzz and I developed stamina, improved our strokes (American crawl, Australian crawl, backstroke, sidestroke and breast stroke. Don trained us over and over on how to break a hold while under water. Of course, he would wait until you had done the perimeter swim three or four times before he grabbed you and drug you under.
On occasions, Don couldn’t make it and Danny would take over. We were at Roosevelt every day for three or four weeks. Danny was more instructive. Don was more physical. If you didn’t fight Don as hard as you could, he would make you pay for it by increasing the number of times he tried to drown you in a session. He was wanting us to quit. He tried every trick in the book to get us to stop the lessons. He cursed us, damned near killed us, and told us what pieces of shit we were and that we didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to pass lifesaving.
Once it got close to going to camp, he changed his mental abuse and started building our confidence. Slowly. Very slowly.
The first day of camp, you normally get to select what programs you want to attend. Mr. Polk was having none of that for me and Buzz. He assigned us our merit badge classes and lifesaving was first thing in the morning, right after breakfast.
We thought Don was hard. Lifesaving at Kickapoo was brutal. First, Buzz and I were split up. We were not allowed to team together. I was put with some guy from Yazoo City. I always thought of Yazoo City as a large city. In reality, it only had around 11,000 residents but that dwarfed Morton with 2,000.
Strangely, the guy and I got along. I’m surprised because I was so shy back then but we both got into the swing of the training. This guy also had a big city attitude – at least for Yazoo City.
The swimming area at Kickapoo was much larger than Roosevelt so swimming the perimeter was a challenge. That was only the first day. We later were swimming the entire lake. A lifeguard would row along side of us as we swam. Every so often, he would jump out of the boat onto one of us and we’d have to break his hold and then continue swimming. The one rule was once we broke the hold, we’d have to swim them to the boat and place their hand on the gunwhale.
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We were coming up on the last day of camp and we needed to demonstrate we could save someone drowning by swimming out to them, dive in front of them before they could reach out and grab you, then push them upward out of the water as you came up behind them, and reach across their chest in a chest lock. In essence, you floated them on your hip and did the sidestroke back to the pier.
The Yazoo City guy and I were teamed together and we each had someone assigned to pull in. The first thing he did was cross my lane and headed for my guy (his was bigger and had a reputation of really working you over). I pulled out in front of him as I swam and told him he was heading for the wrong guy. I kinda felt bad about that but no so bad I was willing to take his guy on.
When you swim toward a drowning victim, you never lose sight of them. You have to swim with your head out of the water as you jump in. You never dive in after them – you simply jump shallow so your head doesn’t go under. You never take you eye off the victim.
As you approach, when you get within 3-5 feet of the victim, you then dive in front of them and sneak around the back of them while under water. Then you grab their legs (dangerous because they are kicking) and then force them upward so they rise up out of the water. As you do that, you then come across their chest and place them on your hip. You then start swimming towards the dock with the side stroke – without the use of your arms. It’s all leg kick. I was fortunate to have a very strong leg kick back then.
Our instructors had this system where they would let you get within a few feet of the dock (remember, you had to place their hand on the dock) and they would use their feet as a rudder to take you back out. Once they had you far enough away from the dock, they would then break your chest hold and take you under. In this case, they would grab you around your arms and chest and sink to the bottom. You had only a breath of air to break their hold and repeat the technique of coming up behind them and putting them back on your hip.
They would do this two or three times to simply tire you out. They would see if you could break their hold (most were gym rats and were twice our size). Several were football players at colleges in Mississippi. If all else failed, you would have to get really physical with them. Several of the lifeguards would end up with bloody lips and noses. Unfortunately, that would also make them angry and they’d make you pay.
Eventually, my guy must have gotten tired because he let me pull him in all the way to the dock. What a relief it was when I put his hand on the dock and he acknowledged I had “saved” him.
Once out of the water, I looked for my Yazoo partner. He was still at it but finally was able to also pull his guy into the dock. As we headed to the community showers, he looked over at me and told me he would not have made it if I hadn’t been his partner. I acknowledged the same with him. We challenged each other every day of the week and were stronger for it.
We still had to wait until the next morning to find out if we passed the merit badge. Buzz and I both did.
This was probably the most physical and mental challenge I have ever had up until the time I hiked Guadalupe Peak in Texas. However, I was 70 years old when I did that so I still consider lifesaving merit badge to be one of my biggest accomplishments that I set for myself.
I kept in touch with the Yazoo City kid for a few years but then college happened and we lost touch. I never found if he made Eagle. Everything after lifesaving was a piece of cake so I made Eagle that year.
Mr. Polk, Don and Danny, and the kid from Yazoo City taught me that if I put my mind to something, I could probably accomplish it. It built my confidence for the rest of my life. Challenges simply became obstacles to get over and not to be feared or dreaded. It’s what got me through Ole Miss, boot camp in Alameda, four years in the Coast Guard and graduate school. I learned that I can not only cope but also do well.
Lifesaving merit badge was a significant goal that allowed me to have some modicum of success. I suspect I even surprised Mr. Polk when I completed it. I also suspect Don was in significantly better financial shape after he “tutored” me and Buzz.
Lifesaving Merit Badge