Oh, HELL yes! He was absolutely CRAZY to do what he did. I myself begged him not to do it, but as is typical of 14 year old boys...they don’t listen much to 13 year old girls.
I will say this about the ice (and I’m no expert on the properties of salt water ice): it was at least 8 inches thick about 100 yards out. In reality, Long Island Sound at that point isn’t very salty at all. Douglaston is at the westernmost edge of the Sound and has fresh water coming into it — for example, Little Neck Bay doesn’t smell like the ocean, though it IS salty if you drink the water from it.
Personally, I am terrified of falling into a hole in ice and getting trapped underneath it. I had nightmares for weeks after Jimmy’s stunt. The fact is, though...stupid as it was, we all still remember it all these years later. LOL...you should see Jimmy now, a veritable pillar of the community!
Regards,
PS: I’ve never seen the Bay freeze like that ever again. It truly was a brutally cold winter — I don’t remember one colder, before or since.
No, I get it. And I remember it being very cold. I can’t remember whether our bay was frozen. I do remember one of the guys, who is now a pillar, going out onto the ice a few years earlier. It’s a great temptation, conquering the (Huntington) Bay like that.