The Mud Bath

When you are young and inexperienced, a situation that seems life threatening to you may seem amusing to others. The situation described in this story will always be serious to me, even to the point of being a near death experience.

The Mud Bath

In August of 1953, my dad and I were on a fishing trip to Lake Marvin near Canadian, Texas. It had been a dry year and the lake had shrunk to approximately one fourth it’s normal size. I was 10 years old at the time. I decided to walk around the bank of the lake and fish. I had walked about three quarters of the way around the lake and the mud in the dry lake bed had gotten about knee deep. I decided to try to make it all the way around and had only about 50 feet to go to make it to the rock dam. I took a few steps and the bottom fell out and I began sinking deeper and deeper into the muck. I screamed and hollered as loud as I could for my dad, but he was too far away to hear me. I thought to myself…” well this is it“….. as I sunk deeper and deeper and said a little prayer asking for some help. Just as the mud reached my nose, I felt solid ground with my feet. I looked up and said….”thank you Lord”….. and was able to swim out of the muck and walked back around the lake. When I reached the dam on the other side, I took off my all clothes and washed the mud and other stuff out of them and jumped in the lake naked and washed me off. Although it seemed very serious to me, I told my Dad about the ordeal and he just laughed at me.

Lake Marvin near Canadian, Texas. I was was walking around the lake fishing and started sinking when I got within about 50 feet of the dam on the left side of the Picture.

Me at 10 years old. I could just feel the mud oozing in around my nostrils.

Thanks for reading The Mud Bath,

Hawg Jaw Bill