My cousins from Washington State were visiting for a week that summer, and one day we decided to go swimming in Zumbro Lake about 12 miles north of Rochester, MN off Highway 52. The specific place was called "Ryan's Bay". It was (and still is) a popular place to swim and fish.
I and my girlfriend Mary Ann (later to become my 1st wife) and one or 2 other friends from Lourdes High School as well as my cousins drove to Ryan's bay. In the course of the afternoon, my friend Jim Jesseau and I (and maybe another male friend or two) decided it would be a good idea to swim across the lake. I show a Google map of the area below and using the Google measuring tool the span of the lake ranges from 80 yards to 613 yards. Keep in mind that the length of a football field is 100 yards.
I'm sure we chose one of the shorter spans to cross. About 1/3 of the way across I discovered I could no longer go forward nor could I return to shore. I simply was too tired and my muscles would no longer work! Fortunately Jim Jesseau, almost in a professional manner, calmed me down and urged me to stop fighting to stay afloat and slowly pulled me back to shore!!
I don't believe I could ever thank Jim enough because my entire future was in his hands for a few moments that afternoon! A week later, Mary Ann gifted me with a nice rosary in a black leather case to "protect" me from any such future occurrences. And the rosary has protected me all these years, certainly from drowning because I never again was stupid enough to attempt to swim across an uncertain body of water without some sort of flotation device.
Your humble blogger on the left and Jim Jesseau on the right. Both Photos are scanned from the 1962 "RAJUCO" (Rochester Junior college) yearbook.
