COWBOYS AND INDIANS

It was saturday morning and I just finished a big bowl of kellogg's sugar corn pops and was ready to meet the fellas to play cowboys and indians.  We were free to do battle until our mom's called us for lunch.  The cowboys were to be me,  the twins that lived across the street, Jimmy and Johnny McDowell, and Paul James from around the corner.  My mom and dad just gave me a  Stallion .38 cap gun and holster with a fan tail hammer for quick fanning firing and I was excited to try it out on the indians.  We did rock, scissor, paper after school on friday to figure out who was going to be a cowboy or an indian. The losers that became the indians were Ronnie LaRusso from next door, and the Roady brothers from the next block.  We were all in Mrs. Welsh's third grade and were best friends.  We gathered together in my carport and decided where to build a fort and who would attack who first.  Absolute parental off-limits was a newly dug canal a couple of blocks away.  All of us had been punished for falling prey to the seeming magnetic tractor beam pull of the canal.  It was a perfect place to lob rocks and watch the ka-plunk splashes.  Our parents warned that the banks were steep with loose dirt that went straight into deep, dark water.  We were scared but not that scared.  Ronnie LaRusso wanted us all to attack each other from opposite sides of the canal.  It was pretty far from bank to bank so we didn't think we could throw a rock that far to hit anyone...and the ka-plunk sound of missing rock bombs pretty much decided for us.  We went to the canal but lied to our parents and said we were going to build a fort in the vacant field by the the junior high school at the end of the block.  The cowboys took position on one side of the canal and waited for the indians.  As soon as Ronnie LaRusso picked up a rock and threw it at us, he started to sink into the sand and slide down the steep bank into the canal.  It was all in slow motion.  He was in the water before we knew it.  I slid down the bank with Paul but we were afraid to go in the water since it didn't look like there was anyplace shallow enough to stand.  I yelled to the McDowell twins to go get help and the other guys started to scream and look for a branch or something to throw out to Ronnie.  He was screaming for help and we kept telling him to hang on.  It wasn't too long before Ronnie just quit fighting and went under.  We never saw him again.  The McDowell twins ran all the way home to get help instead of going to houses right across the street from the canal.  By the time some parents got there, it was too late.  The police came and dragged the canal and found Ronnie's body dressed like an indian. It was the first time that any of us ever saw a dead person.  I think of that day and Ronnie La Russo every time i get in the water.  I ended up on the high school swim team, a certified SCUBA diver, and a lifeguard for many years.... and i am certain I did all of that because I was afraid to jump into that canal almost sixty years ago to save my friend.