WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? IT'S JUST WATER!

Not everything has improved with time but swimming lessons have. Recently I observed my three-year-old granddaughter’s first swimming lesson. There was an instructor in each lane. Abby, in the beginner lane, was with three other tots who were being taught to jump into the water facing the instructor. Some of them landed horizontally, some vertically. All were encouraged and, at the end, the virtue of effort was rewarded with a purple ribbon. (Purple, luckily, is Abby’s favorite color.) The point is, the kids were learning to swim one skill at a time with patience and encouragement. My children were taught by hanging onto the edge of the pool and kicking. The arm movements were practiced on land and then in the water, held aloft by the instructor. It worked, mostly. My first lessons were at the junior high pool where I clutched the side with my elbow and sucked in sobbing breaths while the instructor (fully clothed) stood above me on the deck. Even with the chin-strap, rubber bathing cap, I could hear him shouting at me to put my face in the water. After years of swim team (as a kid and a mom) I still shudder at the scent of chlorine. I have other, better, memories of swimming. I once placed tenth in a state swim meet and it was in the paper. “10th-Emmons.” I still have it. Because the summer swim club had a trampoline, I learned a few tricks which I translated into a first place in a Junior High diving contest by performing a front dive, a back dive and a somersault. I beat two other girls and named myself president (and sole member) of the Pinpoint Diving Club. I expected to move on to the Olympics. There were some efforts at synchronized swimming but they were a little lame. All I remember is some group “dance” with the uninspired title “Assorted Fish.” I guess my best memory should be the odd days in junior high, when the girls would lie on the floor of the locker room trying to get a glimpse of the boys in the pool. Rumor was, they swam naked. You couldn’t prove it by me, though. By then I was wearing glasses which prevented me from lying flat enough to get a good view. Kinda of a metaphor for my life. Anyway, after the swim lesson, we took the purple ribbon out for ice cream, so for Abby and me, it was all good.