My Memoir

Huntington Beach 2006 Imagine your at the beach with the salty ocean air and the sand between your toes. You've spent all day with some of your best friends and things are going well, the gang's all here. This is pretty much the way my beach trip was last year. Okay so before I tell you the story, there are some things you need to know about my friends further known as "The Gang." Now I know what your thinking, "A GANG!! WHAT?!?!" No, its not that kind of gang, you see there is this big group of us from the ages of about fifteen to eighteen.who all go to this same place every year at the same time. It’s like one big family and we all are just fun, crazy, abstract people. We all stay for about 2 weeks every year around the fourth of July. This campground is really cool because not only does it have a castle (Atlaya) but, it also has marshes with alligators in them! Staying some where that has alligators may sound scary, but they don't bother anybody, and it's kind of cool being able to go hang out on the overlooks at the marshes. Well one day last year on my annual trip to the beach, I got up as usual, and I called everyone to see where they were at. We all decided to meet down at the over looks and hang out for a little while. So we met down at the marshes and we were just all hanging out lying around talking when all of a sudden Will is like "OH MY GOSH!" Of course, every-one's like "WHAT!?!?! WHAT'S WRONG?" So I walk over there and at first I don't see anything so I’m like "What?" and he goes, "MY HAT!" Sure enough I looked down at the marsh and there was his beloved hat. He turns to me and says, “I have to go down there and get it.” I said, “EXCUSE ME?” Well there was no talking him out of it he loved that hat too much to just leave it. My heart was pounding as he climbed down there and went out to get the hat, I just knew an alligator was just going to come up and eat him! But, everything goes well and he gets back his hat. And he’s getting ready climb up a huge wood pole to get back on the overlook. I knew this was going to be a chore because there’s nothing to hold on to in order to get up it. Will starts struggling trying to climb the pole and I look off a little ways and there is a GINORMOUS alligator just watching us. Now I was trying to make sure that Will didn’t panic and luckily he hadn’t seen it yet. So the other guys Matt and Aaron are trying to help Will get up, while I’m watching this alligator slowly move toward us. I am just standing there watching this alligator inch toward my friend and I was just praying that it wasn’t hungry! After about 15 minutes Will was back up on the overlook and that alligator was right there looking at us. It must have been hungry but it wasn’t going to get brunch today. Once I showed everybody the alligator they were freaked out and relieved at the same time because we all knew he made it just in time!