I think it was around 1978, and I hadn’t even seen Jaws. Jaws came out in '75, when I was 7, but you didn’t have to see it to feel its effect. Kids were pretending to be eaten in swimming pools all across America, and I was no exception, but I wasn’t posing as a victim on that fateful day in my Grandmother’s pool. Well, it wasn’t her pool. She lived at One Lincoln Plaza, across the street from Lincoln Center in New York City. On the top of her building was a kind of country club with deck chairs, a pool, and a restaurant. They filmed a scene from Q there.

Anyway, it was lap time in the pool, so there was no playing around. I was doing my laps, but since the pool was small, you had to defend your lane. People would dive in and try to muscle you out. 

So there I was, just swimming along, when my mind began to wander. The blue water and the splashing made me think about the menacing Megalodon in the movie. Again, I hadn’t seen the movie, and I was in a bright blue swimming pool, but the thought of all those triangular teeth was hard to shake.

The more I tried to fight my imagination, the more panicky I got. It felt like Jaws was right on my heels. I was halfway across the pool and thinking that, as soon as I reached the opposite side, I would get out. Then I saw someone jump in my lane ahead of me. He started swimming right at me. I don’t know if he saw me, but I just barreled ahead in hopes that he would get out of my way. I just needed to get to the other end and be rid of the giant shark on my tail.

The oncoming swimmer did not get out of my way and we smashed head-on into each other. We both stopped for a second, and when his head surfaced right in front of mine, I could see who he was. It was Roy Scheider.

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