The Wife ran

to the kitchen yesterday morning. No it wasn't for another cup of coffee.

She was running to get me.

Excitedly,

she said, "Rick, you've got to see this; we have a bat on our front

porch!"

"What's

he doing?" I answered.

"Well,

right now, he's just hanging out." Funny Wife I have.

She showed

me the little brown bat about two inches long, which had taken up residence

under the cover of our front porch roof. I found this to also be some

exciting news: finally something desirable has moved into our neighborhood.

Bats are cool;

they'll eat ten times their body's weight in bugs every night. I knew

a kid once that could do that, but it took him six months.

One reason

I liked Neighbor Thomas so much was that he had a pool in the back yard.

That, and Thomas was a little bit bigger than me, a good thing when Down-the-

Street Bully Brad came around, which he did most everyday. Thomas' pool

had a sliding board in place of a diving board. The diving board had been

broken the first summer by Bubba Hanks with his now famous double-jump-cannonball

dive.

Bubba was the

biggest kid on Flamingo Street; he was even bigger than Big Brother James,

and that was big. Bubba Hanks had been held back in the third grade for

a year due to a kidney infection. For six months, he stayed at home and

didn't do anything. Well, he did do one thing. He ate.

We all liked

Bubba, and around the pool he was the best at cannonballs and belly flops.

Let's just say that when Bubba Hanks entered the pool, he displaced a

great amount of water. With Bubba, we had our very own wave pool, and

that's how we found the little brown bat.

In all the

years of playing, no one ever got hurt in Neighbor Thomas' pool 'cause

his parents knew a lot about water safety. They wouldn't let anyone run

in the pool area because someone could slip and fall down. Mrs. Thomas

always had a phone next to the pool in case of emergency. Bubba Hanks

thought it was so he could call for pizza. Mrs. Thomas said no.

They always

had a cooler of cold drinks and popcicles on a table just outside the

pool area. Mrs. Thomas said that even though we were in the water all

day, we still needed water inside of us. Bubba said he'd just drink the

pool water. Mrs. Thomas said no.

Mrs. Thomas

taught us the "feet-first-first-time" rule. The first time you

jump into water, you don't know how deep it is. So don't dive in - jump

in, feet first the first time. Bubba came up with his own rule, "belly

first all the time." Mrs. Thomas said that was okay.

It was Mrs.

Thomas who told us that no one could go swimming unless they had a buddy.

I chose Bubba Hanks to be my swimming buddy. I figured a certain someone

wouldn't come after me with him around. The last swim buddy through the

pool gate had to make sure it was closed. Mrs. Thomas said that this was

so no small children could get inside the pool area and fall in, but I

knew the real reason. She wanted the gate closed to keep Down-The-Street

Bully Brad out, and I didn't blame her.

Mrs. Thomas

always made us wear sunblock while we were around the pool, and when we

were playing in the water she made us reapply it every hour. She said

that playing in the water washed the sunblock off. Bubba Hanks washed

all of his off by doing cannonballs.

The first summer

Neighbor Thomas had a pool, Bubba Hanks did a double-jump-cannon-ball

dive with a splash so big it blew the cap off the strainer, and the strainer

basket was washed out of the pool! When the basket strainer washed out,

so too did the little brown bat that was caught in it. Seems the pool

light at night not only attracted bugs, but also bats.

The little

brown bat survived the double-jump-cannonball dive and returned each night

to eat its fill of swimming pool bugs. A might crack was heard when Bubba

Hanks did his now famous double-jump-cannonball dive, but unlike the little

brown bat, the diving board did not survive. The next week the broken

diving board was taken out, Neighbor Thomas got a new sliding board for

his pool, and Mrs. Thomas gave us a new safety rule: No double-jump-cannonball

dives allowed in the pool.

Pool safety

tips: Always swim with a buddy, wear and re-apply sun block every hour,

no running in pool area, drink lots of liquids when you're swimming, feet

first the first time you jump in, and always have a phone by the pool

in case of an emergency. (Like if someone tries a double-jump-cannonball

dive off your diving board or if you leave the gate open and a certain

someone comes lurking around.)

[Rick Ryckeley

is employed by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

He can be reached at [email protected].]