Almost Amity Island

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Independence Day. We had an all-weekend extravaganza at my Sister-in-law's house (10 adult children in a family makes for a huge deal). It was pretty organized with each night having a theme (luau, Mexican and All-American BBQ cook off). A good time was had by all. However, I do have a story to tell.

In the movie Jaws (yay for you if you already knew Amity Island was the setting of the scariest. summer movie. EVER.) the Mayor said, "Martin, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July."


So on the 4th after the cook off was over (we were totally robbed), and before the fireworks, all the kids decided to go down to the creek to swim. The creek is only about 3 feet deep, and really clear so I not only went, but got in too (I have a thing about not being able to see my feet when I swim). It was so very cold and so very needed on a muggy day. Everything was going great. Our internal body temperatures were no longer in the 100's and the kids were all having a blast letting the adults pull them on boogie boards. It was nice until...I noticed my sisters-in-law all gathered in a circle looking at the ground. I overheard one say, "I don't know what it is." Another said, "It looks like a slug." The last one said, "Could it be a leech?" As I started walking toward the scene, they called over my DH (their brother) and asked, "Hey, do you think that this is a slug or a leech?"

My DH took one look and said the words, "Everybody out of the creek, it has leeches." (notice there is no exclamation point because he doesn't get all excited). All it took was the word leech to put me in a full panic. I ran to the side, and like the one woman on the beach in Jaws, I started hollering at the kids to, "Get out of the water! There are leeches!" This got everyone's attention. Then, they all stopped what they were doing like deer caught in the headlights and ran out of the water (I'm not sure if it was the teacher/crazy lady voice or the fact that there were PARASITES in the creek that made them hustle). To make matters worse, two of my nieces got out too late and we (by we I mean my DH) had to pull leeches off their tiny little legs. The swimming party was O-V-E-R.

The moral of this story is, if you yell "LEECHES!!!!!" you also have a panic on your hands on the 4th of July.