John Elmer Lawton

About 15 years ago I learned of John through my work as editor of the Lawton Ledger.  John lived in Cuba, New York, down near Pennsylvania, in the western part of the state.  He had been born five days after the July 4^th celebration in 1907, his parent’s fifth child, with 14 siblings yet to come.  In 1999, at the age of 92, John published a book titled, “Mother and Her Nineteen Children.”  Yes, I have a signed copy dated August 30, 1999.

John and I became friends of sorts, although I never met him in person.  He once asked me if I would be his son, but I had to inform him I had always known someone else as my father.

In writing back and forth with John he mentioned he had written a manuscript of a companion book to his published one.  I told him I hoped he published it soon as I really enjoyed the first one.  On June 26, 2000 I received a package in the mail from John.  He really did package up his hand typed original manuscript of his second book, which he never did publish, and mailed it to me.  He told me to copy it, and when I was done mail the original back to him.  I did as instructed, and now, as far as I know, I have the only copy ever produced of that manuscript.

Herewith is a condensed version of a story from that unpublished book manuscript:

I Learn To Swim

Uncle Ed told me he would teach me to swim so we went to the stream in the cattle pasture.  We stripped naked and Ed, without waiting for me, gave a warwhoop and jumped as high as he could and speared the water like a fat, white javelin.  He swam away underwater, then disappeared, but I could see him quite a distance through the clear water.

I stepped into the water, about a foot deep and it seemed cold.  I shivered and moved back to stand on the warm gravel.  I looked up and down for Uncle, but he was nowhere to be seen on the whole creek.  I got worried a little at first and then real worried when he didn’t show up for at least two minutes.

Of course I was just guessing but I had counted the breaths I had taken and it came to four of them.  I went over to my clothes and took the pants off the fence and started putting them on, thinking I ought to find an adult and tell them about Uncle disappearing under the water.  I was sure he was drowned and I didn’t know what else to do.  I kept catching my big toenail in my pants leg and was looking to see what held me up when the water geysered up behind me and Ed splashed out of the water, almost covering me with a wave.  He stepped near me and showered me again by shaking his long hair.  He started laughing like everything.

“Give yuh a scare?” He asked.

“I’ll say you did.  I was just about to run for help.  I didn’t know what to do.  I thought sure you were lying on the bottom of the creek, drowned.”

He continued to laugh.  “I can hold my breath under water for two minutes and ten seconds.  I was the best in the prison swimming team.”  He saw that I wasn’t laughing.

“Well come on if yuh want to learn to swim.”  He said stepping out into about three feet of water.

“Come on it hain’t that cold.”  He said as I hesitated with one foot in the water.  “Jest  jump right in.  It’s cold only fer a second.”

So I made a valiant effort, shaking with the cold, I finally made it to where he could get both my hands in his.  As soon as he had my hands, he whirled quickly and threw me over his shoulders.  I landed in deep water.  I went down and touched the bottom and kicked back up to the top, my head just out of the water.  I gagged, strangled and tried to stay on top, but sank like a stone.  Then I thrashed my hands and feet desperately and came to the top again, breathing great gulps of air.  Ed was laughing so much he could hardly stand up.

Then something wonderful happened.  I found that with my splashing with hands and kicking feet I could stay on top of the water, and Boy! Oh Boy!  I was slowly making my way to Uncle Ed who had stopped laughing and came my way.

“Nothin’ tuh it, is it?” and he took my hand.

That’s how I learned to swim.