The human mind is one of the truly great marvels in the world, A storage closet for experiences and memories. The ability it possesses to call upon that vault of remembrance in times of stress and need has never ceased to amaze me. It was never more clearly brought home to me than during an incident that happened in the summer of 1975. July 2nd to be exact. A long cherished hope of mine was being fulfilled. Owen and I were running the Snake River in a rubber raft. An adventure "no more dangerous than riding in a car", said the ads, and it seemed so. A lovely, leisurely morning had passed with the raft bobbing through the swirling muddy waters of the Snake. We had watched the lovely egrets land in the water, grab a fish and rise again. We had seen moose, strangely graceful for such large animals, grazing at the waters edge. Our guide pointed to the eagle's nest and he obligingly rose in the air for us. Along the shore, elk, their new horns still fuzzy knobs, raised their heads to watch us bob by. We had gazed in awe and wonder at the mighty Teton peaks above us, a view of them as we had never seen them from the highway. Lunch time and we were famished.
(The remainder of Mother's description of the trip has been misplaced. Dad continues the story of the events as follows:
After a brief rest to permit our lunch to settle and make acquaintances with all passengers on the raft (there were six couples) we reboarded to continue our trip down the river.
Our guide and raft pilot turned out to be the son of a neighbor of ours when we were stationed at George AFB where we lived in Washington Terrace. It was nice to get reacquainted and we asked about his parents. They had moved to Apple Valley because they were civilian and no longer eligible for military housing. He was just a young boy when we were neighbors.
The rules of the owners of the raft were that all passengers must wear life jackets. The ladies complied but the men thought they could manage without them. After a mile or two down stream in shallow water there was a water-soaked log about a foot under water that our pilot did not see. All of the ladies were sitting in front of the raft and the men in back.
The raft went over the log and the front collapsed spilling the ladies into the river. The men remained aboard. Unfortunately the ladies were thrown overboard. We realized the danger. I, as Zelda’s husband tried to be a hero and dove into the river to try to save her. I managed to grab her by the hair but the water was so swift that I could not hold onto her. I was a fairly good swimmer but the water was so swift that all I could do was go along with the current. The water was very shallow at this point and I went bouncing down the river like a little rubber ball hitting every rock along the way. After about a half-mile down river I was able to work my way over to the bank. The shore at this point was lined with a stone wall about 5 or 6 feet high. I struggled and struggled to get out of the water and finally managed to grab hold of a protruding rock and pull myself up on top of the bank. I think I broke every fingernail on both hands. I was completely exhausted and the water was so cold I nearly became unconscious.
Fortunately the place where I got out of the river there was a ranch house that was vacant most of the year but a ranch-hand had just arrived a few hours before and had strung a telephone line. He saw me and came out with a heavy comforter and a hot cup of coffee. It was black and very strong but I never tasted anything so good.
After a little while he managed to revive me enough to find out what happened. He got on the phone and called the county sheriff. They immediately dispatched a helicopter and a rescue team to locate all of the passengers. I was very concerned about Zelda but they said she had managed to work her way over to a sandbar. She had removed most of her clothing because she had read that in a situation like this it was the best thing she could do to keep from catching pneumonia. When they found her all she had on were her undergarments.
The search and rescue team from the sheriff’s office and the raft pilot did a marvelous job in locating all couples. They used their helicopter and found two ladies over 4 miles down river. They were very cold but okay otherwise. The raft pilot broke his leg trying to save some of the ladies and said he was afraid that I had drowned and was very happy that they found me. When everyone was accounted for they took us to the local hospital for X-rays to make sure our lungs were clear of river water.
To end this story, Zelda and I were determined that we would not let a little incident like this keep us from completing the trip, so the following July we went back and took the trip again. This time everything went smoothly. We had the same raft pilot. We told him that he was not to blame for what happened and he said that he admired our courage for making the trip a second time.
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