It's sad but it's a memory and it did happen ...
Ron Rollins's is a writer on the CGOL staff. Ron is recovering from a recent heart attact, but is feeling better and vowing to write on with the next adventure in his very popular CGOL exclusive series "The Ins and Outs of Harris County" column on the Community page. His recent heart attack brought back floods of memories that were tucked away in the past. Yes, even the GLORY DAYS had some sad memories.
The Boss man asked me to try and remember my memories of being raised in Columbus, Georgia. At my age I have quite a few memories built up. Some happy and some sad.
I can remember when I was a very little girl when my daddy walked in and sat down at the kitchen table. There were tears rolling down his cheek. I had never seen my Daddy cry. I stood very quietly behind Daddy and stroked the back of his neck, as though just being there comforted him.
As I quietly listened to my mother and two older sisters talking, I soon found out there was trouble. Daddy and a bunch of his friends would every now and again go down to the river and take out two or three boats. As the good ole boys would do today with their trucks, guns, and beer sitting around in the bed of their truck hanging out. Daddy and his friends would sit around a fire they had made and drink beer. In days gone by, he and his friends would take a few beers, maybe a bottle of Four Roses and maybe, just maybe, some moon shine. Daddy would say the moon shine tasted like "Rot gut," I don't want anyone to try and explain that to me. Now that I've written it down it looks worse than it sounds. The next best thing to sitting around and shooting the breeze would be to get in a boat and go fishing. The World's problems could be solved while sitting in a boat, fishing from dust to midnight or setting out trout lines. Sometimes daddy would take me back the next morning to bring in the trout line and I can remember seeing an eel mixed in.
Daddy would bring in the line, go back home take out what he and the family could eat, then walked down to where the neighbors lived and shared what he had caught. I can also remember on Sunday mornings running in to take a shower before getting ready to attend Church and throwing back the shower curtains and see many little eyes looking back at me in shallow water. I would scream..." Daddy."
 Harry P. Waldrop 1906-1962
Daddy would put down the Columbus Ledger Enquirer Sunday's Newspaper along with his mug of coffee. He would be sitting out in the back yard in a wooden lawn chair he would hear me calling him thru the bathroom window. He would come in remove the fish and clean the tub for me. Then he would tell me after Church he and I were going to nail the fish to a tree and scrape,gut and clean them and fry them for Sunday dinner. Ahwwwman. I knew then my Sunday afternoon was planned.
We always got thru in time for me to be picked up by friends from Church and take off to Ida Cason Callaway "s Garden. Billy Case and Bobby Shehean, one or the other, were always driving, they ask me when I climbed in, " Hey Sandra, you think Mr. Waldrop will have any of that fish left when we get back." I would lean over and sniff Billy's shirt and tell him I'll trade him some of Daddy's fish if he would get his mother to give me one of the Pork Chops they had for lunch. The kitchens were so hot and the cars were hot so we could guess what each one had for lunch. Sunday meals were a full meal no soup and sandwich. We had time to cook, eat and clean up after Church and still take off for an afternoon at the Liberty Bell swimming pool at Pine Mountain or a dip in the man made Beach at Ida Cason Callaway's Garden and ride in the paddle boats and still made it back to young people's meeting at 7:00 PM at Church and evening Church at 8:00 PM that night.
So back to daddy and his friends the Dennis family who lived on lower First Avenue who would along with others meet on a Saturday night and take out the fishing boats and fish, drink and shoot the bull. Now this was in the late 1940s and this was one of the in things to do. My Daddy was the most out going one and knew everyone and never met a stranger. So, which ever boat he was in, that is the one everyone would want to be in. Daddy was cutting up and fun was had by everyone until one of the Dennis brothers decided he wanted to be in the boat with my Daddy. He stood up and was trying to balance himself to be able to step on into Daddy's boat which was almost full. The Dennis brother was almost in the boat with daddy, somehow he lost his footing and went into the water. When he hit the water his older brother yelled out, that." My brother can't swim. " It was past nine p. m and the darkness had covered the river and they could only see by the moon light. There was enough light for daddy to be able to see where the younger Dennis had fallen in. Daddy dove in after him, clothes, shoes and all.
Daddy was born and raised in Washington County Alabama, 65 miles from Mobile. He was raised around water he was as comfortable in the water as he was on the land. He could fish, dive and swim and enjoy the outing. Daddy was comfortable in the creeks, ponds lake and rivers in Vinegar Bend, Alabama.
Daddy went down where he saw the younger Dennis brother go down. Daddy headed in that direction, knowing in the back of his mind all he would have to do is reach down and bring up his friend. Daddy reached down and nothing was there except more cold dark water that already surrounded him. Daddy tried not to panic so he thought he might dive deeper. Okay! this wasn't deep enough. He came back up for air and went down again, this time he found the younger Dennis brother. He grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up and out of the water. Daddy had his head and shoulders above the cold dark water and when Daddy reached over to hold on to his belt and pull him back to the boat the brother floated away. His arms were flinging out of fear of death staring him in the face. Daddy was looking at it as you are out of the water, we are home free, Wrong! The brother was thinking I can't swim and I'm not going to make it, with this his arms stared to go in all directions and as he fought the water he was beginning to go under and get further away from Daddy. As Daddy was trying to get a grip on his body and pull him to the boat where the others were waiting and hoping and praying Daddy would get a hold on him. The brother went under again. With this the men were shouting to daddy whering they were seeing him, The men were yelling, " He went right," "He went left, " " He's behind you. " "Turn around Harry, he's right beside you". Daddy now not sure in what direction to turn, it was dark and the river was deep and daddy knew the directions he chose would have to be the correct one he didn't have time to make a mistake.
Daddy was surprised when he went under the first time he was close enough to the Dennis brother to know that was him and he had been given a second chance to help him. Daddy again reached out and grabbed a hold of his hand and the brother grabbed, he grabbed so hard that he had a death grip on Daddy's hand. Daddy pulled as long as he could hold his breath. He thought he they were close enough for the others to held out. Wrong! Daddy knew the grip the young man had on him would carry them both down. All Daddy could do in this short span of time was to break loose and grab him by the hair of his head. Daddy broke loose and was going to grab for his hand, while trying to get air himself. When Daddy broke loose, the brother was caught in an under current that pulled him away from Daddy.
When Daddy came to the surface the Dennis brother and friends were waiting for them both, but only Daddy made it to the top. It was a sad time and a quietness fell among the trees , the wind had picked up and sounds of the river couldn be heard beating against their boats
This night ended in a death a quiteness that could be heard only by the men involved the Chattahoochee River made her sounds of victory. No one could speak no one could believe this happened to them one moment having fun the next they were standing in darkness with death of a friend and brother. All had gathered for many years and they could all swim except for the younger brother who would not be left behind .They all had been drinking buddies. They either met at Choppy's down on Victory Drive , playing cards, hunting or fishing. But now they have a night that they would remember forever knowing they would never meet again with the fun of the night they had started with.
They called the police they all went to the jail to tell their stories and how they remembered it. When finished around midnight, they were let go, all the stories were the same and they ruled it an accident. The men were bound together with the memory of their night from Hell when man battled with the Chattahoochee River and lost..( All my younger days I had heard the word Chattahoochee meant river of tears . Chattahoochee the name of the river between Georgia and Alabama had been named by the Indians for the lives that had been taken from them while trying to cross. Thru my young life and later years I've heard of many deaths in the Chattachoochee River for the lack of respect for her. As always I stand to be corrected. But this is what I have heard most of my life. The Indian name it for a reason and the Chattahoochee River took the lives of those who didn't respect her. The Chattahoochee River has taken her toll on the Red man along with the White man thru the years.)
Back to the night of the drowning,even though the accident had been ruled as an accident, Daddy took it personally and he took it hard. The other men couldn't comfort him. Daddy knew the death of the young man fell on his shoulder, If he hadn't wanted to be in the same boat with him he might have been alive. Daddy felt guilty because he was such a great swimmer, being able to stay under water longer than the others. Daddy carried a sad memory that stayed with him and a few years later he had his first heart attack out of seven.
I remember the first heart attack when we came home from Church (Central Christian, Disciple of Christ) he started having chest pains. A few of the members of the Church knew Daddy wasn't feeling well so they followed him home worrying about him driving with mother in the car. My sister Norma Waldrop Heid was in the Car with Jesse Wills pulling up in front of the house as the Ambulance pulled out of the drive way. Jesse pulled over to the curb let the ambulance and let the Ambulance pass then he and Norma followed it to the City Hospital. (now known as the Medical Center)
Not long after Daddy was out of the Hospital we had gotten him home he hit the floor doubled up in pain. In those days (The late 1940s) you didn't know to take an aspirin and wait for the ambulance with trained men who could help the pain and give you hope on the way to the City Hospital. Later on after the seventh Heart Attack (1949 -1962) they were sending ambulances that was almost like a small hospital on wheels). He was driven to the Hospital where he was admitted and stayed for weeks. Back then there was no such thing as ICU and CCU and St. Francis Hospital (as it is known for now) waiting at the door of the Emergency Room with medication to prolong your life.
Remembering the number two Heart Attack came with Daddy walking around in the Kitchen trying to find some baking soda for indigestion, when the Baking soda didn't help we either drove him to the City Hospital or called an ambulance. This went on for five more times, listening to Daddy breathing hard, his pajamas were wet and he was having pain in his chest. Some time he had all the symptoms and we headed to City Hospital other times he would take the Baking Soda and this would ease his chest and we would all go back to sleep. Back then mama and my sisters watched out for Daddy holding his chest and or holding his left arm seeing the pain in his face, this was the signs of a Heart attack back then. Now days a mere pain in the shoulder blade can mean a Heart Attack in progress. Janice Wiggins Wyrosdisk 's mother only had pains in the shoulder blades and she was amitted with a Heart Attack which led to Open Heart Surgery.
At times we would all wake up listening to Daddy moan and groan, we would listen and it would stop and we would go back to sleep, if it didn't we would hear him hit the floor no matter if it was in the kitchen on in the back bedroom. We became trained to what was normal and what wasn't, when he hit the floor, it was a go. We didn't talk, we all took our places and in the mean time we prayed and prayed. I was young so I was left with the next door neighbors. I was grown and married and my Jan was sixteen months old when Daddy had his seventh Hearth Attack. I can't remember if it was the McQurters or (Bill) Pervey and Bobbi Bell that were our neighbors. I can't remember if Bobbi and Pervey were living next to us then or not in the Rose Hill neighborhood Jordan / Johnson area) when Daddy had his earlier Heart Attacks. In 1949 the first thing the neighbors would do was to come and get me and take care of me untill Mama or my older sisters came home from the Hospital.
Daddy lived in a time when once you had a massive Heart attack they kept you alive, if possible, for years before you died. Then the big one would come along. After the First Heart attack Daddy knew he was living on borrowed time. Today you have a massive, a Myocardial Infarction they take care of you and you are ready to go again. My MCI was in 1988 and two months later I had Open Heart Surgery and they were working miracles. Daddy died in 1962 at the age of 56 never knowing when his last breath would be. His first heart attack was at age 49 he lived 7 years of never knowing when the pain would stop or back off.
You can't compare what I went thru to what Daddy went thru. My Daddy suffered. So much has been discovered. When I had my heart surgery in 1988 and look what they are doing for people of today compared to what Daddy and I went thru. My stay in the Hospital was 13 days, Daddy's stay was a month, Ron, my friend's stay was two days and he flat lined twice. The Doctor said he died twice on the table. You can see on his side and back where the paddles shocked him.
Part Two: More about Ron Rollin's Heart Attack, what the symptoms were and how I was there most of the time to see him walk thru the Valley of Death and come home in two days. Read how Ron almost died because we couldn't put our finger on what was happening to him. His EKG looked was normal, his Blood Pressure was fine and he was up, walking and talking. We were about to tell 911 not to send the Ambulance. Read what would have happened to Ron if we hadn't taken the advice of the Ambulance Attendant who strongly suggested that Ron ride into St Francis Hospital and have a complete check up.
More about Ron and the changes compared to Daddy's Heart Attack.
Read Part 2
Sandra
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