Find A Float

okay [Music] for some very fortunate people water is a playground they skim over it knife into it cut cleanly through it prowl around under it but for many of us water is not a playground it's a place of peril in disguise [Music] you're john davidson you're a young machinist with a gear company or just a neophyte salesman with a printing company or or anybody working anyplace you've got a wife two kids and a small neat home out in some anonymous subdivision lately you seem to have a chronic case of the laws you really don't know what it is but nothing seems to be going right maybe you've been working too hard maybe even having a losing bout with the bills or maybe you're just plain dragged down by the everyday treadmill business of making a living it's saturday afternoon and you've grabbed a couple of quiet hours away from the grind a couple of hours for yourself just like that in a flash everything's forgotten build from the dentist the everyday business of earning a living everything [Music] you're excited now inside you've got a feeling the fish is a good omen your luck is changing [Music] then you do a couple of very foolish things you stand up in the boat and pull on the starter rope and you started the boat while the engine was in gear [Music] you're joe schultz butcher you're a proud butcher because you own your own shop you sell good neat prime stuff and everybody knows it business is getting better and better every day that's secondary the butcher shop is only the means of taking good care of your wife and family that's what life's all about you're a family man that's it kids have fun have fun everybody's having fun right [Music] [Music] [Music] you're alice templeton today all your senses are alive the sun is basking warm every now and then there's a flutter of a soft breeze you've done a very dangerous thing you've drifted out into deep water and you don't know how to swim but then again no one ever told you that floating toys are dangerous and being oblivious to danger is not unique when you're 14 years old [Music] we come back to the picnic chest because it's important it could have been used to save alice templeton's life it floats with or without the lid on it it would support a 14 year old girl in the water and the long cane pole could have been used to pull her back into her unfulfilled future you see these wooden folding chairs they float too if you'd been there you probably would have pushed one of them out to alice tragically they were left standing on the dock and tragically this incident has an ironic similarity to the others none of them had to happen john davidson could have made certain that his motor was out of gear before he started it and played it doubly safe by starting the motor from a seated position the youngster did what he thought was best he ran for help he had a gallon of help right at hand all he had to do was deliver it to john a capped gallon thermos jug will keep coffee hot or an iced beverage cold for hours and even if half filled with either one it'll keep a 195 pound man afloat so long he'll probably end up on coast guard reports as a navigational hazard sure joe schultz shouldn't have stood up in the boat and he shouldn't have attempted to re-enter over the side if he'd gone to the stern it would have been the way to do it and the kids were cowboying around like a couple of accidents looking for a place to happen but what could she do there were four of them in the water she wasn't a strong swimmer the answer was in the trunk of the car [Music] [Music] another happy ending none of them had to happen life-saving improvised floatation aids were close at hand in every case each helpless bystander could have been a helpful bystander was only a matter of thinking in terms of improvised flotation aids of course none of the parties should have been out in the water without coast guard approved life-saving devices what do you think the sequel would have been if the entire schultz family had been equipped with life preservers or floatation cushions what if the pier so close to alice had been equipped with an approved ring light buoy most of all what if all the people involved had known how to swim [Music] learning how to swim is fun wonderful exercise and in a water emergency it can quickly become the most important skill you've ever learned [Music] what would you do if you witnessed a drowning type accident do you know that it takes only 14 pounds of buoyancy to support the average adult in the water a capped plastic bleach bottle will do the job or an ore a branch a ladder a water ski a wooden bench a metal ice chest plastic beach toys a string full of decoys a surfboard how do you remember all these things you don't have to in a drowning emergency try everything in sight chances are something will float [Music]