FORTY FORT, Pa. — They should've been enjoying a relaxing summer vacation, maybe preparing for their first semester of college.
Instead, Jim Gower and his friend John were stacking sandbags trying to stop the raging water from the Susquehanna River.
It was about a week after they graduated high school.
"We were 17, we thought we ruled the world. We thought - We're gonna stop this river, this isn't gonna do anything," Gower said.
That sense of invincibility kept the pair of teenagers there for another couple of hours, even after the third alarm went off from the National Guard telling people to evacuate.
"All the smart people had left."
The sandbags would prove useless. It was time to go.
"From here to Butler Street, we had to swim," Gower recalled.
They reached a National Guard truck that took them to Lake-Lehman High School.
"For two days, I had no idea where my family was."
Remember, he said all the smart people had left before him.
That included his father and two brothers.
He found out they were safe. Evacuated to Sweet Valley but he wasn't reunited with them for another 2 weeks.
That whole time waiting to learn whether his house had been destroyed by the flood.
Since their property sits on an incline, they got pretty lucky. They lost everything in the basement and the rugs on the first floor.
"And yet people across the street - they had water, some of them, their whole first floor was inundated."
But no one was lucky enough to avoid the next task.
"A week, maybe two weeks, all we did was shovel mud. I mean, mud like you couldn't believe."
Jim is 68 now; his daughter lives in his old home.
He has the stories and the photos, but he says nothing compares to living through it.
"I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can remember this from 51 years ago."