I was anything but a tomboy while I was growing up. I was all girl and all female. Several of my close friends and I were really miffed that the girl scouts would only let us do girl things while the boy scouts let our male counterparts have a lot of fun. After I was in my second year of college, I joined a sorority that was the opposite of what sororities normally are. We did not wear frilly dresses or skirts, and have fancy dances. We were into what is now called extreme sports.
I have made at least fifteen freefall parachute jumps, gone down several rivers in both canoes and rubber boats. I love to ski both downhill and water. Rock climbing and bungee jumping was not popular back when I was in school. But boys were.
I went to a Midwestern school where we had beautiful rivers and the Ozark Plateau to play around on. My sorority and a guys fraternity were faithful partners in what was then called co-ed activities. We used to pair off a lot. Greg was my normal partner in just about everything. Greg was two years older than I was and was a normal kind of guy. He was not a big strapping he-man football player type. If he had to do a sport it would have been tennis. Or golf.
Greg and I hit it off really well from the start. We met at the first event of the year when I first started out. It was a swimming and planning party. We had the pool to ourselves because everyone else in school was at the football game. As an initiation, all the new people (both boys and girls) had to pass a swimming test. It was really an easy one, just swim fifteen laps of the pool. I could do this in my sleep. I did distance swimming in high school.
One of the older girls told most of us that if it looked like we were having trouble in the water, one of the guys would jump in and “rescue” us. We were told that this should happen after the 12th lap. That way they could “help” us swim the last part of the test. Well, most of us could read between the lines and knew this was how we were going to partner up.
Before the test I had seen Greg chatting with a couple of the other guys, drinking a soda, eyeing the new girls. The rest of the guys were drinking beer. Greg saw me eyeing him and when he looked at me I smiled at him and turned away. (I really was shy with guys back then. Up to that time I had only dated one guy.) Time for the test came and I jumped into the water and started to swim. I took it easy because I was not really feeling my best just then. To put it bluntly, It was the wrong time of the month for me. Normally I would never swim during that time. Today I had to if I wanted to make the canoe trip the next weekend.
Everything went well for the first ten laps. Then I started to have cramps. I doubled up a couple times, but it was nothing serious. I was not afraid to be in the water with cramps. I learned in Water Safety Instructor and Scuba class how to deal with it, and not panic. Greg had been keeping his eye on me. I didn’t know it, but the guys had already discussed with the older girls who to partner with and Greg had already chosen me for this trip. He was going to valiantly jump into the water and rescue me in two more laps.
I made it to the end of the twelfth lap, but I had started to cramp up in my left calf now. As I was in the middle of the pool, it went really bad and I had to scream because the pain was so bad. I gulped in some air and went under the water and was holding tight to my leg when Greg came up. Instead of coming up to me and offering to help me, Greg saw I was in real pain and came up and rolled me over in the water so my face was up.
“Hey girl, I have you. I know you are in pain. Just hold on and I will get you out of the water. You’re going to be fine,” he told me in a calm voice. All I could do was nod my head that I understood him. Greg towed me to the side and got help from a couple of the other guys to pull me out. I was still doubled over in pain. I had never been so embarrassed in my whole life. I wanted to die. I just lay on my side and prayed for the pain to go away, which it finally did.
I had presumed that no one would want to partner up with me after that. I was wrong. Greg put in a “bid” on me and claimed “rescuer’s rights.” After all, when a guy rescues a damsel in distress, he expects to be properly rewarded. Don’t you read fairytales! They tell you how to reward him.
I rode out to the place we were going to be camping with Greg and we got to know each other a little better. I was a lot more at ease with him when we were alone. Greg wanted to be a chemical engineer. He was from Oklahoma and worked in the oil fields during the summers. He planned on moving up North to Alaska when he finished school and already had a job with a large oil company. He worked summers for them and they told him they would put him to work the day after he graduated from college. Greg was into everything. He was the one that talked me into jumping out of an airplane the first time.
We got down to the campsite at Blue Springs, met the group, and loaded the canoes up. It was great. The sun was beating down on us. I had on a floppy hat, a yellow halter top and cutoff’s that stopped just above my knees. I would just wear a brief two piece swim suit when we were around camp, but I got my thighs sunburned once before and knew the pain that caused. Greg looked at me and smiled.
We headed out. I was in the front seat with Greg in the back steering. We floated down the river at a gradual pace. This part of the river has about four minor sets of rapids. After we shot those, we coasted for a while.
We got into several water fights with other canoes. We got wet a bunch of times, and were swamped twice. Greg swamped three other canoes. (All our gear was lashed to the canoe in water proof containers, and wrapped in a tent.) This was the most fun I had in a long time. I wished I had found this group my first year in school, only I went to a school near my home for my first year.
I was having the time of my life. Greg and I were working out well as a team. I wondered how well Greg would be at another sport. I was going to find out sooner than I dreamed possible. Much sooner.
Greg pulled us over on a sandy beach and I pulled out our picnic lunch. We went to a shady spot under a big tree, ate, and just talked. After we finished eating, we both took little walks into the brush. Guys have it all over girls in that.
Just as we were getting ready to leave again, I saw Greg had a spider on the back of his butt. It wasn’t a big one, but . . . I never liked spiders. I reached over and brushed it off with my hand. Greg did not know why I did that, and I guess he thought I was playing with his butt.