It was warm that summer Sunday, almost windless. The ocean at Solana Beach's Fletcher Cove looked as calm, as unthreatening, as bath water. But 29 beachgoers were hurt by sting rays.
Some people say it hurts as much as having a baby.
The only treatment we had for it was to soak the poison out in warm water. The man doing the soaking that day, for all 29 victims, happened to be lifeguard captain Bill Rumsey. One woman had managed to sit on a ray and Rumsey had to borrow a wash tub for her. Rumsey was the first lifeguard captain hired when the rescue service began at Fletcher Cove in 1941 as a branch of the Sheriff's Department. About 40 people had drowned the previous year.