Tomas,
My teenage years were spent on the St. Johns River in NE Fl. There were, at various times, anywhere from 20 to 35 boys grouped together way out of the nearest city.
During those years we learned swimming, water sking, boating, fishing and hunting. But of it all (by far) our favorite passtimes were paddling up and down the river's edge beneath the very low overhanging cypress branches, hoping to be the first that day to have a moccasin fall down in the boat. Of course the "game" would then change to get the damn thing OUT of the boat asap! The OTHER passtime, day or night, was skinny dipping.
We had a large dock w/a boathouse. To make the area "safe", we would swim up under the dock and splash water on the snakes to get them to clear out so we could swim "safely".
Straight out from us, in the middle of the river, there was a channel marker about 15 feet tall. If we saw a tug pushing one or more barges coming either way toward us our goal was to swim out to and climb up top and wave at the crew of the tug as it would pass by ten to twenty feet away. And I might add that we saw a lot more smiles than frowns!
Immortal kids! And would I love to do it again? In a heartbeat! Would I actually do that again? Are you insane!!?
Thanks, Tomas, for the trip down memory lane.
And oh yeah! We had TONS of wally gators around!