It was an ordinary day. Reading a story titled "What a Fish Tale!" Brought back so many memories from when I was a young boy of about 10 years old and wanting to go deep sea fishing on a boat in Ocean City, New Jersey. My dad would get seasick when on a fishing boat when they stopped to fish while out at sea. So...for the life of me, I'm still not sure to this day why he said I could go by myself if I wanted to, but he did. I got on a boat and off I went, out to sea! I still could see land when we stopped to throw out our lines for the first time. Wasn't more than 15 minutes before I began to feel ill. I was standing next to an older man, perhaps the same age as my dad, when he looked at me and asked if I was sick. I told him I thought I might have to throw up. He asked where my dad was and when he found out he was not on the boat, he took it upon himself to help me. He helped me bring in my line, secure the rod and then helped me into the cabin so I could lay down on one of the benches. I wasn't the only one using the benches inside the boat, since the water was rough that day and quite a few were laying on benches inside the boat. He helped me get situated and said to take deep breaths and exhale through my mouth. After perhaps 5 minutes I was beginning to feel better, but he said he thought I should stay there for at least another 15 minutes to make sure I wouldn't get sick. He had me lay down and he left to fish outside the door where I was located. Every so often he would stick his head in the cabin to see how I was doing. About 20 minutes later the boat began to move once again and I began to feel better. He arrived to check on me and said I looked ready to go again. I agreed, but within another 10 minutes we made another stop to fish again, and I was ready to throw up once more. I did the same routine as the first time and stayed on the bench a bit longer. Eventually the boat began to move and the man was back once again to check on me. Funny, but I never asked his name and he never offered it to me. My deep-sea fishing trip that year was spent mostly laying down inside the cabin of the fishing boat. And, had it not been for that very nice guy, I'm not sure what I would have done. When we returned to get off the boat, he made sure I got safely off the boat and then left me. My dad was closeby, so I ran to him with my fishing gear in hand. He naturally asked how I did. The more I told him, the more he asked where this guy was that had helped me. We never did find him, but to this day, 70 years later, I still have his facial image embedded in my mind...and if I should ever see him, I'm almost sure I would know who he was. So..."Thank you, Mr. XXXXX" for all you did for me that day and for taking your time that you could have been fishing to help make sure I was OK while laying inside the cabin. I often wonder if I will ever meet him again or if he is still alive. Well, one thing I never did after that....was go deep sea fishing! I want nothing to do with that ever again.
PS --- If you are that person who helped me that day about 70 years ago, many thanks for what you did. I'm sure I never thanked you enough! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
PPS - Sorry that I forgot to post a story yesterday...on Christmas Day! My wife and I had the entire family of 10 to our home at Woodcrest Villa to celebrate Christmas and it was so very hectic that posting a story was on the bottom of my list. Thanks for understanding! LDub
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