Police don't see the fun in bridge jumping

About thirty years ago, I was working at the Huntington newspaper on a nice Sunday afternoon when we got a call from a man who said he was going to jump off a bridge into the Ohio River. He said it might be fun. I figured the only reason he called us was because he wanted everyone to know what he had done.

My editor and I talked it over. He sat in his car at the park near the bridge, and we communicated by radio. He watched as a man approached me and started talking. I let him know that this was the guy. My editor called the police, who sent two cars up on the bridge to take us down. I got in one car and the recreational jumper was in the other. The officer who drove me off the bridge said people don't understand how dangerous the river can be for high jumping. You never know when a submerged log is passing under you, he said.

Well, today someone decided to take a fun jump off the bridge, and the authorities weren't pleased.

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Meanwhile, 20 miles down the river in Ironton, Ohio,, a 46-year-old woman apparently stripped down to her panties and took a swim in the river. The current carried her over to Russell, Ky., where she entered a house, confiscated some clothes and made herself a baloney sandwich. Police said she was intoxicated.

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All this going on, and here I was at home cleaning my basement.