Big River.....

I used to sit ‘n daydream a lot back in my way back when time....I did a lot of it staring at the Ohio River....the River was a big deal in my life back then....well, I think it was a big deal in the lives of most of the people I knew back then....It was a ‘BIG’ River, prob’ly a half-mile wide tho’ ever’body use’ta say it was a mile wide ‘n something of a rite of passage for the boys of the village....well, swimming across it was a big deal anyway...’n mostly it was a challenge for thirteen year olds....at least, it was for me ‘n I was thirteen when I swam it....the problem came when I realized that if I tried to swim back, I would prob’ly drown...I walked upriver, searching for a log or piece of driftwood that I could hang on to kick my way back but I didn’t find one that I thought was good enuff....I walked all the way to the U.S. Grant bridge which was pretty near a mile upriver from where I had landed....I was a skinny thirteen year old in a bathing suit on the wrong side of a big river. The U.S. Grant bridge was a toll bridge....a quarter for a vehicle, a nickel for a pedestrian and I didn’t have a nickel...Heck! I didn’t even have a pocket. I had all sorts of plans for evading the toll but I don’t remember any of them now. I think I just begged my way past the toll station but the mem’ry of that is lost in time....I did, however, get back to Kentucky ‘n walked the mile down the narrow blacktop t’get back home.
I recall it was a while before I ever swam the Ohio River again but swim it I did ‘n that time I swam back as well. I only swam it the two times but that was enuff.