A Mermaid Remembers

by

Dana Mardaga

© Copyright - 2000 - Dana Mardaga

Suddenly the plane started bouncing up and down so violently that it was making the wings of the ancient DC3 flap like a bird. I was in a 50 year old prop plane, headed for my first dive trip with the University Underwater Society, (as the UT scuba club was called then), somewhere over the ocean, near the third world country of Honduras. The plane belonged to the fleet of now defunct SAHSA airlines, which I was later told stands for "Stay At Home, Stay Alive." My fellow passengers and I felt a collective nausea with every passing jerk of the plane. Finally the plane smoothed out, and as we were all sighing with relief, a female passenger stepped out of the cockpit, and with a huge grin yelled out "Hey everybody— they let ME fly the plane!" Approximately 20 people were ready to strangle her.

The plane went on to Roatan where it landed on the beach. Our bags were heaved from the plane's luggage compartment into the sand below. Local kids, known as the Baggage Buzzards, grabbed the bags and ran. They dropped them off at our awaiting van and held their hands out for a tip. A few lucky club members had gotten to ride over to the island from the mainland in the hotel owner's private plane, so they missed the hair-raising ride we had experienced.

The trip was organized by then-president Tracy Davenport, who helped me get over all my beginner diver jitters. It was 1977 and the island had not yet been discovered as a dive destination. There was no electricity, no phones, no roads, and our hotel had almost no food. We ate mostly out of cans. We even had to bring our own tanks, which US customs were VERY suspicious of when we returned home. They made me totally empty my tank so they could look inside. But we had a great time, in spite of the hardships. We had one non-diver in the group, a Russian immigrant (and a garbage man at the time), Joe Adelman. He had fun learning to snorkel on this trip and eventually learned to scuba. Joe is still one of my very best friends.

I was in graduate film school at UT at the time, so I thought it was good to practice writing film revues in our newsletters. Shark films were the rage in the ‘70's. One of my all time favorites was "Great White". I wrote:

"This generic "Jaws" didn't have a whole lot of new stuff to offer— same renegade shark munching on teenagers.....The shark may have been rubber, but the acting was all wooden. One of the main characters (Vic Morrow, who never wipes that smirk off his face, even after his daughter's leg had become a snack for Mr. Shark) must have seen the other two "Jaws" films because he knew that the way to get rid of the creature was to blow it up ...What a rip-off. But don't get me wrong, this movie does have plenty of redeeming value. It's about sharks— real and rubber. We enjoy stuff like this, right?"

Vice President Tim Kennedy, also a graduate film school student and future President of the Club, had an underwater 8mm movie camera and would film our dives to show at the meetings. There was never a shortage of entertainment at the monthly meetings. One of my favorites was "Fin Fun," where Tim swam under water and filmed my dog, Putney, swimming above him. Tim also wrote film revues for the newsletter. One of my favorites was the one he wrote about "Piranha": it is " the latest fish-story to hit the local theaters. The plot concerns a school of piranha, scientifically bred for aggressiveness and bloodthirstiness, which is unleashed into central Texas waterways. The movie was filmed at Aquarena Springs and Lake Austin, where the finny fiends include a scuba diver on their menu... The celluloid images of the onslaught of the piranha will be repeated in the viewer's nightmares for months to come."

Past President Paul Johnston presented some great slide shows at some of the meetings, like the one on San Salvador in the Bahamas. He has stayed involved in the club activities over the years and has put together this fun web site.

© Copyright - 2000 - Dana Mardaga

Of course we had some great club parties, which were held at the co-op I was living in, The Blue House, at 608 W. 22nd. Street. In October of ‘78 we had a huge toga party. The movie Animal House had just been released and toga parties were the rage, so everyone showed up to our party in togas. The highlight was supposed to be the Ladies Jello Eating Contest, a race to cram as much Jello down in the fastest time. An autographed photo of then-Texas Senator John Tower was the grand prize, donated by club member Maggie Bray, who worked for the Senator. In the heat of the race, UUSer R.P.Watson yelled out ‘FOOD FIGHT!!!!" In a flash, the contest was ruined and jello was being hurled everywhere— I got hit in the face. My newly painted dining room walls were totally covered with slimy red jello. The picture of John Tower was splattered and ruined. No one wanted to win it any way. Needless to say, R.P. was in big trouble and felt so bad about it that he was over at the house at the break of dawn the next morning, mopping the floors and cleaning the walls.

Another crazy party was the "Stranded in the ‘60's" one, also at the Blue House. Everyone got into the ‘60's vibes. It was far out— it blew my mind how everyone was dressed so groovy. Peace, love, dove. Tim Kennedy's burned draft card was found on the floor the next morning. Hey Tim— maintain, man.

We made two dive trips abroad, both back to Roatan, but not to the same hotel as before (we wanted to eat.) On one of these trips we spent New Year's celebrating in a quaint local bar that sat on stilts over the water. I think they only had one record in the juke box, because it kept playing over and over. Their generator was running out of power (still no electricity on the island) because the song kept slowing down and speeding up. But we had a great time trying to dance.... fast, then slow, then fast...... We did some good John Travolta imitations— Saturday Night Fever had just been released and disco was on it's way in. Some of the Club members on these two trips included Steve Sivley, Sherry Cordry, R.P Watson and Kirk Gray (another future club President)— four people who are still good friends of mine (and who I wish would get back into diving!)

To this day, I still have on my resume that I am a past President of the University Underwater Society, way back in 1978-79. Even though it was many years ago and may not help in a job search, I am still proud to be able to say I did it.

© Copyright - 2000 - Dana Mardaga