Gene Dammon
The Port Arthur News
http://www.panews.com/archivesearch/local_story_008110414.html
When I saw his name in my e-mail “in-box,” I assumed he was writing to verify
his address for our class reunion. We of The Class of 1958, Thomas Jefferson
High School, are having our (gasp) 50-year class reunion in April! But his note
was regarding another matter: he had been checking The News’ web site for obits
for his genealogy research, he said, when he noticed my name, and read several
of these columns. He wrote some nice things about my work, as friends do.
Seeing Swiki’s name triggered some vivid memories.
We had been grads of TJHS a couple of years when Swiki Anderson and I ran into
each other at a New Year’s Eve party at the Ball Room on Pleasure Island. One
thing led to another, and before the night was over, we had made plans to go duck
hunting the next morning. Very early the next morning.
Swiki said he knew a place, down the Intracoastal Canal, where he thought they
wouldn’t mind too much if we hunted. But we needed a boat to get there, he said.
No problem, I said. We can pick up my Dad’s boat in the morning.
When Swiki arrived the next morning at the garage apartment where we lived, the
house was dark, and it was obvious my alarm hadn’t awaken me. Neither did his
knocks at the door. But there was a window near the head of the stairs, and Swiki
managed to open it and climb through.
He didn’t know that there was a couch on the other side of that window. Swiki, a
big fellow, came through the window and fell over the back of the couch and onto
the sleeping 13-year-old baby sitter, Nita, (my wife Sue’s sister). I don’t know
who frightened whom the most, but the ensuing hysterics woke me right up, as well
as everyone else in the house, including Sue and Johnny, our 11-month-old baby.
I got dressed in record time, grabbed my shotgun and boots, and Swiki and I, both
being hugely unpopular in that house at that time, got out of there as quickly as
possible.
We put the boat in where Highway 87 crosses the Intracoastal south of Port Arthur,
on a night as black as ink, and discovered at that time that we had no spotlight,
headlight, flashlight or any other source of illumination other than the running
lights on the boat.
We could have — should have — waited at the launch site for daylight before making
the run down the canal, but we were eager to be ready to shoot at first light.
Besides, we were 20 years old; what could happen? We cranked up and started down
the Intracoastal.
I couldn’t see the canal, or either bank of the canal, and every time I tried to
get up some speed, I ran the boat up on the bank. After repeating that maneuver
several times, we got in behind a passing tug-boat and followed him, ever so slowly,
down the canal. We got to our hunting spot not long after daylight.
We saw only a few ducks that morning, and hit even fewer than that. The most
memorable thing about that hunt was that we survived the day.
Swiki became a professional engineer and moved to Bryan, Texas, where he lives now.
I hope Swiki can make it to the class reunion in April. If he does, I would be
astonished if either one of us suggests getting up early the next morning and
going anywhere in a boat, in the dark.
Mr. R.F. Gross, my boss at Gross’ Grocery in Pear Ridge when I was a kid, had
a plaque with these words, that I have never forgotten:
“Ve ged too soon olt, und too late schmart.” It seems appropriate to the story.
Gene Dammon of Port Neches is a contributing writer to the Port Arthur News.
His e-mail address is: gene-san at sbcglobal.net.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
There is a link for Gene on our favorite links webpage. Just go to the PA News
and do a search for Gene Dammon. You may also click on his photo which will take
you to the article posted here. Gene's writing skills are improving or is it
his memory? Just kidding!
|