19 years old

I once was pushed into a deep hole by a wave while surfing in Santa Barbara. I could touch the sides of the hole as far up as I could reach and it was deep enough that I could touch the bottom with my feet. When I sprang up I was immediately pushed back into the hole by the next wave in the set. With complete panic and closing in on seconds before I would have to either take a breath of air or breathe the seawater into my lungs I sprang up again and took a sweet breath of air but the third wave crushed me and I coughed it back up. I wasn't pushed back into the hole this time, I was in that place where the power of the water is rushing around you mixed with sand and twirling your body around to the point that you don't know what direction to swim for. I was lost. I had no energy left to fight. I could feel my soul slipping.



Then I was pulled up by my friend who I was surfing with. Paramedics and a whole crew of people met us at the breakers. They carried me to shore and tried to convince me to go to the hospital they had an ambulance waiting on the beach! I refused to go, I felt fine, just a little tired. I found my friend and tried to thank him but he refused my gesture. He told me there was no need to thank him, that he didn't even know I was getting hammered, he didn't notice my board washed up, he was just paddling back out for the next set when he felt my arm by chance as he treaded.


When I got my energy back I walked down the beach to recover my board. One of the life guards approached me to ask how I was I told him I was fine and he said:

"you have quite a friend there, the other lifeguards and I gave up trying to find you we but your friend stayed out there fighting against set after set for almost an hour... and he found you. Its amazing!"


"What? I was only out there for five or ten minutes"

"No man, you were out there a long time. We gave up hope of finding you alive, except for your friend. You may think you were out there for a few minutes but you must have been in mild shock or something. It is amazing that he found you"



My friend didn't want to be a hero. He didn't want to take credit. He didn't want acknowledgment of any kind. I respected his wishes and never let on that I knew what he had done for me. I made up my mind that whenever that guy needed help with anything working on his car, a loan, a ride, any damn thing I was gonna be there for him.

Unfortunately I was never able to repay my debt to my friend. He committed suicide 2 weeks after saving my life. He was 19 years old.
If you are hoping for an explanation as to why he would take his life, I don't have one.

If you are curious about the details of his death. I will not offer them.

If you feel robbed, I'm with you.


MickGinny

[Scopulus Argentarius]

Beginning to see a pattern....

http://www.pulsehead.com/message/407/19+Years+Old.html
http://ubersite.com/m/36464
http://fuggingonuts.com/pages/19_years_old.htm

merry christmas

[breakingnews]

Are we crying imposter? Or plagarism?

Those first two sites seem to be ... well I dunno, but you can rate posts and there was lots of feedback, so I'm assuming there is some sort of evaluation theme.

Odd. I dunno.

"Are we crying imposter? Or plagarism?"



If there is any crying going on it cannot be attributed to either of those. as I am the author.


Maybe it is not crying at all. Maybe it is something else...

[breakingnews]

Well, it mostly has to do with a post from last week that was blatantly ripped off from some other site. Sex with a very large woman, I believe.

Not contesting your being the author, if you say you are - just people over-reacting to a situation that so recently occurred.

Who knows. But great story, and I'm sorry for your loss as well. I had a good friend from high school who died in a car accident just two weeks after graduation - and she was supposed to come visit me (we went to boarding school) a week or two later. So many things that were never said during the last week of school ...

[lumberjim]

But......what's the plan? why post the same exact story on a bunch of sites? What motivates that?

[Beestie]

Next time do us all a fucking favor and just post it somewhere once and then LINK to it everywhere else you would like it to appear along with providing a reason to follow the link and read it.

I'm growing weary of this spamination.

[Scopulus Argentarius]

Possibly the new trend viewed above is "author-astro-turfing"? Quite frankly I don't mind the stories. It appears to be the result of many a creative writing one-upsmanship contest (read: pissing contest amonst peers). A link back to your normal posting domain wouldv'e been helpful but might have been viewed as "Overt" spamination.

Are you this person?

http://www.efmovie.com/cnn/us/law/09...nny.arrest.htm

(haha)

or

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...ickGinny&hl=en




Cheers....

......
Well let's call them, uh, Mr. X and Mrs. Y. So anyway, Mr. X would
say, `Marge, if this doesn't get your motor running, my name isn't
Homer J. Simpson.'

-- Homer Simpson
Secrets of a Successful Marriage

Originally Posted by Beestie

Next time do us all a fucking favor and just post it somewhere once and then LINK to it everywhere else you would like it to appear along with providing a reason to follow the link and read it.

I'm growing weary of this spamination.

You have charmed me right from the get go beestie but I just don’t know you well enough to start doing you favors.


So you are telling me that you are sick of spamination and would prefer if I spam the next time. That is a neatly packaged quandary you have charged me with.

Originally Posted by Scopulus Argentarius

Possibly the new trend viewed above is "author-astro-turfing"? Quite frankly I don't mind the stories. It appears to be the result of many a creative writing one-upsmanship contest (read: pissing contest amonst peers). A link back to your normal posting domain wouldv'e been helpful but might have been viewed as "Overt" spamination.

Are you this person?

http://www.efmovie.com/cnn/us/law/09...nny.arrest.htm

(haha)

or

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...ickGinny&hl=en




Cheers....

......
Well let's call them, uh, Mr. X and Mrs. Y. So anyway, Mr. X would
say, `Marge, if this doesn't get your motor running, my name isn't
Homer J. Simpson.'

-- Homer Simpson
Secrets of a Successful Marriage

yes and yes.

Originally Posted by lumberjim

But......what's the plan? why post the same exact story on a bunch of sites? What motivates that?

There is no plan jim.

My motivation is primarily the satisfaction of providing entertainment and also learning what people like or dislike about my submissions and why.

I like to write. I write everyday. most of it is garbage i am simply sharing the pieces that dont reek too bad.

[Scopulus Argentarius]

Originally Posted by MickGinny

There is no plan jim.

My motivation is primarily the satisfaction of providing entertainment and also learning what people like or dislike about my submissions and why.

I like to write. I write everyday. most of it is garbage i am simply sharing the pieces that dont reek too bad.

<bugs bunny voice>
Persistant, ain't he?
</bugs bunny voice>


Much to be said with *daily* excorcise of your craft, eh?

[Dagney]

I have a suggestion....

Start a blog, draw traffic, set up comments so people can leave their thoughts.

Yeah....that um, sounds like a reasonable idea.

[wolf]

Well now, I do feel cheated.

I suppose that it does speak well of Mick's writing skills that I didn't pick up on his stuff the way I did the "Fat Chick" guy's.

There's skill in that thar keyboard, that's to be sure, but but where I'm feeling cheated is that now I wonder ... are we hearing you, or hearing a persona carefully crafted for the audience? Are these things which have happened to you, or are they crafted out of whole cloth? One of the things about The Cellar is that most of us here post as ourselves. We write about our experiences, our joys, our sadnesses, sharing ourselves with intimate strangers.

A fiction flag would be helpful.

Originally Posted by wolf

Well now, I do feel cheated.

I suppose that it does speak well of Mick's writing skills that I didn't pick up on his stuff the way I did the "Fat Chick" guy's.

There's skill in that thar keyboard, that's to be sure, but but where I'm feeling cheated is that now I wonder ... are we hearing you, or hearing a persona carefully crafted for the audience? Are these things which have happened to you, or are they crafted out of whole cloth? One of the things about The Cellar is that most of us here post as ourselves. We write about our experiences, our joys, our sadnesses, sharing ourselves with intimate strangers.

A fiction flag would be helpful.

Well, what I post is non-fiction unless it is obvious silly shit. I really don’t see a need for a label.

Do I decorate the truth? Certainly I do. Sometimes, check that, most of the time life is plain and ordinary. The truth needs help at times to sustain interest in this type of medium. I could write and post brutally honest non-fiction about my bowel movements complete with time color size consistency and shape if you would prefer, I have extra time.