At The Lake

Uncle Tony gives some sand castle pointers to Zoe during a family visit to Lake Henderson. Zoe's cousins Kyle, Kaily and Emerald splash nearby.

What better way to spend a dripping hot day than at the local fishin' hole.
Now, my dad has a saying about the lakes in Florida. The bigger the lake, the bigger the gators.
"Will you swim in Lake Henderson, dad?"
"Hell no."
Evidently he used to swim in these lakes as a boy. I thought this was because kids are so fearless. Not so.
As it turns out, he used to swim in the lakes because back then, once a gator got to be the size where he might eat the family dog, he became "freezer meat". Everyone used to shoot the big gators, so gators were never much of a threat. Now, the gators are protected and people are nabbed all the time by giant gators. We'll drive by a big lake and dad will say, "back in '98, a lady was minding her own business, enjoying a beer down by the water when a huge gator come up on shore and grabbed her. Her husband who was right there jumped in and beat off that gator with all his might, thrashing and kicking, playing tug-o-war with his wife. There wasn't much left of her foot, but he managed to wrestle her away from him." My dad can recite one of these stories for a number of lakes we pass on the highway. Those lakes are so enticing. All cool and refreshing in the thick southern heat. Swimming is a gamble, and the losses are huge.
I felt uneasy about letting Zoe play near the water's edge.
But my brother Tony didn't seem concerned, and he grew up swimming and fishing in this water. So little Zoe splashed in the tannic tea water and dug holes in the fine white sugar sand with her cousins. She doesn't need to know about gators yet.




Kaily shows off her water moves in the shallows of Lake Henderson