How I almost sank a plank in an open grave.

So I was around 6 years old living in Bielorus (White Russia). I and my best buddy were playing near the forest and there were several open graves there. As we had a night of rain the graves (I don't know how many there were, that's not what I remember) was filled with water.

So we both got the great idea of throwing in the plank that was lying beside the grave and play the game of trying to sink the sucker with our poles, which we happened to have with us for some odd reason.

Or was that my idea? Probably. I was not too bright at that time. Usually came home with my leather case, which was stuffed with books I need for school, feeling very heavy because of the report card in there. It was filled with 2's. And the scale was from 1 to 5, with 5 being Excellent. Man was that thing heavy!

But I digress. Back to the story. So I take my pole/stick and try to sink the wooden plank! It goes below the water momentarily but then pops back up! Sure puzzled the both of us.

Then you can guess what happened. Yep, my stick slips! And where do I end up? Under water! I look up and see the sky through the water and some grass! Well now am not sure if I got a bright idea or not, but I went for that grass! I grabbed it and pulled myself up and somehow managed to get myself out.

By now you are thinking.... where was that friend of yours? Well, I have no memory of where the heck he was as he sure did not help pull me out! Likely the guy was laughing his head off.

Now, I remembered the incident where I almost burned the house down. And I knew that if I showed up with wet clothing I'd get a lickin' (punishment to others of you who don't get that slang).

So I took my clothes off and for the next hour or more had to stand around butt naked and wait for my clothes to dry in the sun.

Mom never found out about that incident. Whew!