Bryan Blanthorn, Grouse Creek, Utah: an interview by Verna Richardson, May 11, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 264 and 265

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Bryan Blanthorn VER: Oh was it? BRY: I done the same thing. I had kind of dozed off and I kind of fl at d fa littl t myself. And I don't know what made me but I somehow just opened my y a littl and there was a shark coming right at me. And he was really coming. And I don't know to this day how I done it, but I'll say I somehow jumped out of that water, raised out right out of that water. And that shark went right under me, and turned around there, and come back under me. And I was in the air. Now, that's all I can; that's the way I see it. And I still swear I was-somehow I raised out of that water, and that shark went under. And he was coming right at me. And he was like from here to that chair when I first seen him. And, of course, all we could do was kick and scream and whatnot. And when one come in there everybody would kick and scream, and whatnot, and it would kind of tum him off. But it was somebody that had kind of dozed off, and drifted off, that the sharks would get. But I raised out of that water some way, and that shark went right under me, turned around and went right back. And he was a big one. VER: That's your only personal encounter with a shark? BRY: Well, that was my only close encounter, yes, with a shark. Oh, I'd seen a lot of them, yes. But that was the only one that actually come at me. And you'd see them get a lot of guys around you. They got a lot of them. But they'd drift out there, and all you'd here is a scream. And you'd look out there, and pretty quick they was-you'd see the water bubble and whatnot, and some commotion in the water there, and the next thing they was gone, or their leg was gone, or something. Of course, they didn't live very long. 26