There was a Twilight Zone episode once starring Roddy McDowell called "People Are Alike All Over" where he plays an astronaught reluctant to go on a Mars mission with two other astronaughts, ends up being the lone survivor when his ship crashes and is a put in a Martian zoo with a sign that says "Earthman in his Natural Habitat." Thus the reluctant one becomes the victim and so it was with me.
For the past two years my sis in law ha srented a condo in Ocean City Maryland for a week. I had no desire to go there and my wife always went alone and we would go to Wildwood the following week , home of the widest,"SAFEST" cleanest beach on the east coast one of the top ten beaches in the world with more rides than Disneyworld. This year my wife convinced me to go saying my little nephew was going and he loves his Uncle Jim and doesn't see me enough and this would be my chance to bond with him and we would go toWildwood the following week. So I reluctantly agreed to go.
When we got there Ididn;t care for Ocean Cityas it was too built up and citified. The condo was old and shabby from the outside,but nice on the inside.
We were there for about five days and on the sixth day before we were supposed to leave we went to the beach for one last beach day. It was six pm and the lifeguards just left. I never go in swimming after the lifeguards leave,but my neice and her son were in swimming so I joined them. As I was getting out I was in knee deep water, a wave came up from behind me and knocked me over with such fforce. The part where I was, was sandy and soft and on an incline because of the erosion from the waves unlike Wildwood whichis harder and level and my feet sank in the sand. As my feet sank another wave came in and toppled me over . I yelled for my wife to grab me and she came running over and grabbed me.
Meanwhile two very good looking dark haired beach guys who were playing beach toss games with their extrememly beautiful bikini clad girlfriends who Iwas trying to get candid pictures of for a photo shoot I was doing on "Ocean City Beach Babes vs.Wildwood Beach Babes," came runninmg over to my rescue. They must have been off duty lifeguards or EMT workers or as my wife and I like to romanticize "beach savy surfers." There was also an older gentleman in a wetsuit and his wife who may or may not have been their parents.The two young guys reacted almost instinctively with one guy grabbing me under my shoulders and his friend grabbing my feet as they carried me further inland. They shouted to their girlfriends to make something for my head and feet. They immediately put some rafts and tubes together and covered them with beach towels and made one for my head too. They gently placed my head and feet on the pillows while my neice called 9-1-1. The older gentleman in the wetsuit kept me talking so I wouldn't go intos hock asking me questions like what my name was, where I was from,how old I was etc. If these people weren't professional they sure acted likei t and knew what to do. I could see my right leg was swelled way out and twisted ina weird way so I knew that was broken,but thought my left foot was only sprained as I didn't feel any pain there and it wasn't swollen. I was to find out different later on.
The fire dept. arrived quickly with their emergemcy vehicle on the beach and transported me to a waiting ambulance which wisked me away to the nearest hospital with mywife, sis -in -law, neice and nephew following us.
So like Roddy McDowell in that Twilight Zone episode, I, the reluctant one,became the victim.
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