BIG Fish

I loved to go snorkeling with my dad. I’m not sure, why out of all six, I was the one to go with him but I suspect it was the timing of his life. My parents had three children, took a six year break and then had three more. I was the oldest of the last three. By the time dad and I started to go snorkeling, the two oldest had moved out of the house and my brother Michael was usually either gone or kicked out but he certainly never went camping with us at this point. The younger two were too young and well, I guess I was just the right age and the right time.

When dad and I went snorkeling, we went arm and arm. We both wore flippers. His were green and shaped very much like a frog’s foot. They were ancient. Mine were blue ones that he picked up for me at the local Yankee’s Store.

Our first time snorkeling was up to his friend, Harry’s, cabin. Harry and his brother-in-law, Pinkie, shared a cabin on Loon Lake. While dad was friends with Pinkie as well, we never went up there with Pinkie, only Harry. The cabin was up a slight hill and your basic Michigan cabin on a small lake. It wasn’t glamorous and nothing special. I do remember it was an A-Frame and the first time I had ever been in an A-Frame. Dad, Harry and I had been out on the lake early in the morning, fishing. Loon Lake was a small man-made lake but it was in a heavily wooded, lovely area. I have no idea where this lake was. There are several Loon Lakes on our Michigan map. All I remember is it was up north.

Dad didn’t do much explaining before we headed out snorkeling. The lake was small enough that he did mention we could probably go all the way around. I don’t remember if we did nor not. I had swam in mask before so I knew the process of keeping them clear. I had even played a bit with a snorkel before so both dad and I figured I knew the ropes.

So we started out, arm and arm. They lake was spring fed and very clear. It was amazing to zip through schools of fish that would simply split and go around you. We saw a huge snapping turtle that was too lazy to move when we went by. Maybe he thought we didn’t see him tucked in under that sunken log. Dad would gestured to something and point. We communicated by a natural sign language. One we made up on the spot because we knew each other so well. Every once in a while, dad would stop and we would come up for air. He would ask me how I was doing or tell me the name of the fish we had seen. One time he stopped because we both got the giggles because we thought of the same thing at the same time. Going arm and arm, we both started thinking of a bride and groom, walking down the aisle.

We were coming around the north end of the lake. Then dad saw this MASSIVE fish. He was huge. Well over a foot in a half long. I have NO idea what he was, a trout maybe?? Anyway, dad took us diving down towards it. However, dad failed to signal me what he was doing. Dad had also failed to explain to me that when you dive, you take a big gulp of air so you can have full lungs and can clear your snorkel when you come up. I sucked in a ton of water. I was not comfortable as we went down deeper. I started tapping dad’s arm but he was focused on the fish. My dad was a big guy, 6’3” and about 225. He had his huge arm bent so I was locked in. NOW I was getting very uncomfortable because I needed to breathe and I was starting to choke on the water. I was REALLY thumping his arm trying to get him to let me go. All at once he turned to me. He didn’t turn because he remembered he pulled me under. He didn’t turn because he felt my thumping him arm. He turned all excited to see if I saw the big fish too. The minute he saw me thrashing, he knew what he did AND being my dad, started laughing under water. He was trying to get me to the surface but he was buckling over in laughter, under water. We went towards shore but I couldn’t stand up because the ground in this area was not stable, common with man-made lakes and clay shorelines.  When we broke the surface, I flipped to my back to stay afloat and gasped, turning to my side to cough out the water. He was STILL laughing, saying he was sorry and did you see it all at the same time. I LOVED my dad. I adored my dad. At that moment, I forgot that. I glared at him. “You almost killed me!!” My dad burst into laughter again, “I KNOW!!”

We eventually went on with our journey around the lake but that moment marked our snorkeling from then on. Just before we would start out on a dive, no matter how long it had been, I would always remind him to TELL me before he decided to dive after a fish. Sometimes, when we were arm and arm under water, we would see a big fish and I would quickly dart my eyes to him and we would have to surface because he was laughing again.