RIP Kalwejt (almost)

[NOVA Green]

I hear you mate....

I almost died when I was 15 Years trying to swim the Willamette River in Oregon when I was 15....

It was a Nude Beach in the Middle of Summer, where the River was low on the banks...

I had skipped High School with one of my best Male friends...

We hike 2 Miles down the Trail through a River Forest Corridor, and maybe a joint or two was passed along the way...

We hit the informal Nude Beach, but there aren't too many people around...

The River looks calm and peaceful and it is a hot day....

We walk what seemed like halfway through the River, before we started to get up to our necks...

"Let's Swim Across the River", we dare each other as young men are apt to do....

The calm appearing part of the River, turned into a face roaring current, as a result of ice melt off from the surrounding Mountains.... Next thing we know, we are 30 Yards from shore, and 120 Yards Downstream, and we are coughing water....

We are treading water to try to battle and dodge tree limbs in the logs in the river and avoid the treacherous currents.

Made it about 10 Yards from the steep banks after going under 3-4 X in a Minute, while my buddy is literally hauling me to shore.

Man, I'm glad you survived it---- many people don't understand that aren't from places where people die every year trying to beat the heat of the Summertime....

[NOVA Green]

You are a maroon and stuff, but it does not mean I want to see you die, so stay safe.

Thank you for not responding with a random picture. There may be hope for you yet.

So, it was somewhere around here it appears (Insert Random Picture):



To look at it from a broader Map of Poland, waterways and neighboring countries....



I've only ever really spent time in Poznan, Krakow, Warsaw, and Zakopane back in 1994, plus road trip time via Coach between these various cities so przepraszam, for asking a potentially "ignorant" or stupid question:

If the goal was not to swim across the River, but rather to get to the ship-wreck, why didn't you start swimming from the other site of the River???

Based upon your photo and clip, it appears that might well have been the easier (and safer) course of action if that was your ultimate goal.

Glad you survived what sounds like an extremely dangerous and near-death experience.... we want you around for Decades longer...

[NOVA Green]

You are a maroon and stuff, but it does not mean I want to see you die, so stay safe.

Thank you for not responding with a random picture. There may be hope for you yet.

So, it was somewhere around here it appears (Insert Random Picture):



To look at it from a broader Map of Poland, waterways and neighboring countries....



I've only ever really spent time in Poznan, Krakow, Warsaw, and Zakopane back in 1994, plus road trip time via Coach between these various cities so przepraszam, for asking a potentially "ignorant" or stupid question:

If the goal was not to swim across the River, but rather to get to the ship-wreck, why didn't you start swimming from the other site of the River???

Based upon your photo and clip, it appears that might well have been the easier (and safer) course of action if that was your ultimate goal.

Glad you survived what sounds like an extremely dangerous and near-death experience.... we want you around for Decades longer...

Thanks

Well, I wasn't swimming, rather trying to cross it on foot, given how common shallow ground is here.   As I've said, there are many places I know where you can do it without problems, and my mistake was not to check the thing before going back with a backpack. I think next time I'll simply take a pontoon.

Good news is my video camera and photo camera are not damaged, just got really wet.

That was my exact same problem... the River appeared shallow in the Summertime and we were almost half-way across before the water started to get up to our necks, and then we decided to swim the rest of the way, since surely the water must surely be shallow on the other side of the River banks as well, which in theory would have meant little swimming time and tons of feet touching river bottom time.

Legendary singer songwriter Merle Haggard, (Invented the "Bakersfield Country Sound way back in the early '70s) who I was fortunate enough to see live several years before he passed away, wrote and recorded a song about the hazards of swimming across rivers....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard

Merle Haggard: Kern River


I'll never swim Kern River again
It was there that I met her
It was there that I lost my best friend
And now I live in the mountains
I drifted up here with the wind
And I may drown in still water
But I'll never swim Kern River again


I grew up in an oil town
But my gusher never came in
And the river was a boundary
Where my darlin' and I use to swim
One night in the moonlight
The swiftness swept her live away
And now I live on Lake Shasta and
Lake Shasta is where I will stay
There's the South San Joaquin
Where the seeds of the dust bowl are found
And there's a place called Mount Whitney
From where the mighty Kern River comes down
Well, it's not deep nor wide
But it's a mean piece of water my friend
And I may cross on the highway
But I'll never swim Kern River again

I'll never swim Kern River again
It was there I first met her
It was there that I lost my best friend
And now I live in the mountains
I drifted up here with the wind
And I may drown in still water
But I'll never swim Kern River again

I'll never swim Kern River again
It was there I first met her
It was there that I lost my best friend
And now I live in the mountains
I drifted up here with the wind
And I may cross on the highway
But I'll never swim Kern River again


Songwriters: Merle Haggard
Kern River lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Let's look at an image of the Kern River (California) where over (300 People have drowned in the past ~40 Years...

 

https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/kern-river-death-toll-sign-to-be-updated-today

I could easily link directly to the Merle Song, but instead, I think it would be more fitting to listen to the tribute from an array of artists after his passing.... and plus y'all can easily purchase that song or album(s) online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfJylwtfFU

Glad you survived it my man.... Rivers are dangerous and frequently deceptively easy to swim across, especially considering seasonal variations and local turns and twists of the water ways...

Bottom line, quote from Doctor Who: Waters of Mars---- "Water always wins"

[NOVA Green]

a friend of mine and his wife are vacationing in Poland right now.  His wife, somehow, got locked in the restroom of a coffee shop in Poznan yesterday long enough to gather the locals.  I didn't know where to put that and it certainly didn't deserve it's own thread.

That sounds extremely embarrassing at a minimum, certainly not life threatening, but still relevant since in all honesty we don't really have a thread about Poland, outside of Poland Domestic Politics in the Modern era, with a relatively recent historical perspective....

One of my favorite Grad School Poly-Sci classes some 15-20 Years back was something to the equivalent of "Views of the US as perceived from abroad", taught by a former Senior level USSR official (No names nor personally identifiable information to protect the innocents against the Modern Day "Troll Farm Factories" of St Pete)...

I can share some personal stories regarding Poznan and elsewhere in Poland in the early 1990s, where I went to places that few predominately upper-middle-class American college students would go at that time.

Warsaw vs Poznan soccer match that ended up in a virtual riot, with massive police presence in full gear after bottle rockets getting fired into the Soccer Pitch and Hooligans ran amok (Have a few photos in my memorabilia).

Getting shaken down by crooked streetcar transit cops in Poznan to pay an exorbitant amount of Polish $$$ during a period of hyper-inflation, in exchange for a simple mistake of not punching the correct part of my transit ticket.

A live chamber music concert at a McDonald restaurant in Poland, where everyone is dressed in ties and formal attire, to spend way to much money for American style fast food.

Walking around the streets of the largest Cities wearing Docs, black jeans, black hoodie, with short hair to fit into the City Blend without attracting attention in communities suffering the forced austerity measures imposed upon Poland as part of "Neo-Liberal" shock therapy adjustment, where poverty and social unrest was growing from all quarters.

My personal experiences in that brief period of history, exposed me to so much more Wisdom and Perspectives than I would have garnered in Grad Level University course.

I would love to have an opportunity to return to Poland in the near future, and perhaps with Kalwejt's permission we could expand the thread slightly to include personal anecdotes from Americans as part of a "Poland as Viewed from Abroad", where Kalwejt might be able to incorporate elements of "America as Viewed from Abroad", with a larger Polish contingent....