True story. My Dad born 1916 initials WJC, was a pilot in, (USAF) WWII. But after digital instrumentation came and it was determined that Dad was colorblind, he was assigned as a classroom instructor at the Naval Air Station in Orlando. This would have been 1943 or after. One day he decided to go fishing in some small ponds nearby. He caught a nice bass in the first pond but knew that the bass he caught had eaten all the rest of the fish there, so he moved to the next pond. He caught nothing, cast after cast. Suddenly, two large eyes began a slow swim in his direction. Dad knew he had just one chance. He reached back and set the throttle and gave it one hard pull. The small boat shot forward and Dad turned to see a large gator doing a death roll. He had missed.
From the description, I always wondered if that was Disney ground.
Dad lived to be 89 1/2 and died from a stroke.
89 is a solid life, and it sounds like he made the best of it.
Side note - don’t mess with gators in a small boat.