Swimming, the Summer Pasttime

I love to swim! My grandmother used to call me her little water buffalo. She had a 3 foot tall Scooby Doo swimming pool in the backyard when I was growing up. My aunt had a regular size (4 foot or so) above ground pool. I was sent to at least 2 swimming classes, usually at different pools, every summer. I was the first one in the pool and the last one out and they had to bribe me with food to get me out....and I don't care if it's an actual pool, a lake, a river, a pond or even if I'm just playing in the sprinkler. If I could be in the water all day, every day from May to September, I really would...I'd be a perpetual wrinkled prune and live in a variety of swim suits.



College Hill pool where I took some of my many swimming lessons. Recently it was sadly destroyed and replaced with a "splash park"...not nearly as fun!


I used to pretend that I was a mermaid while swimming. I really think I missed my calling....because sometimes I still wish I were one! I always liked how your hair floats around you, how the water feels as you swiftly glide through it, how the temperature can be *scorching* and yet you easily stay cool while in it....oh yeah, and let's not forget how one is WAY lighter (weight-wise) when you are in the water than when you are standing out of it!...You can pretend for those moments that you are nice and svelte instead of big and lumpy!

I remember being at a pool for class not too far away from my grandmother's house for a swim class. Afterwards, the pool was not open so I couldn't stay and swim. My mother had gone with my brother to a different pool for his swim class. She was late picking me up....way late. I was tired of waiting, and waiting, and waiting for her. So, without talking to any of the instructors, I picked up my things and decided to walk to Grandma's house. Mind you, this is pre-cell phone era. So I had a nice little walk to Grandma's and began having a nice visit with her...unbeknownst to my mother...who by then was getting frantic at the pool...and getting all the staff frantic. Just by chance, she happened to ask to use the phone there before they called the police. The phone rang at Grandma's...yes, I *was* there. Search called off. And BOY was I in TROUBLE!!! I was not allowed to leave the pool area the rest of the summer without the staff dismissing me directly to one of my parents!

Ryan Pool in Westwood where I decided not to wait for my tardy mother! This pool still looks pretty much the same today.

As a teen and now an adult...I haven't had as much opportunity to swim but I still love it. My best friend's Dad now has an above ground pool so I get to go there now, increasingly...I'm even helping to house sit this year while he is on vacation so I will hit the pool even more often if I can help it.

If I had my own pool, I'd be in it every day...at least a few laps in the morning and some in the evening....at minimum.

It is, by far, *my* favorite summer pasttime. Forget baseball...give me some cool, refreshing water to splash around in.