As mentioned in the previous story, when i was 3 and 4, i was going to that center that felt like kindergarten. They had all kinds of activities, crafts, gym, and they also had a big swimming pool, and that is where i learned to swim.
At the end of the “school year” we had a presentation in front of the parents. The swimming area had an adjacent room, with a glass wall so parents could watch kids without being in the pool area, and stay dry.
Year end show
Kids were swimming across the pool to show off what they had learned. And some other kids were going on the diving board. I was one of those.
On the diving board
I was not afraid of water. I knew how to swim. And i had been on the diving board, in the deep end of the pool many many times. So as my turn came, i went on the tip of the board, and jumped (we didn’t learn to dive). What happened next was strange.
Sightseeing underwater
As i jumped in the water, everyone would have expected me to come back to the surface quite rapidly since i was small, but i didn’t. For some reason, i stayed underwater. I still have that vivid image in my mind of looking around and seeing the underwater lights that were all around the pool and thinking that was cool. With my eyes open, i was just looking around, “enjoying” the sight.
Scared mom
Obviously, everyone else was not enjoying my staying underwater that long, including my mom who was on the other side of that glass wall! How long did i stay there? I have no idea. I didn’t choke, i didn’t feel out of breath at all.
Coming up
As i was looking around in the pool, i then saw a pole and wondered why they sent that to me, then assuming they wanted me to grab it, i did. And they pulled me out of the water as if i were in trouble. But i was not! I was really enjoying my stay underwater!
Did you have any adventures in the water? Maybe at the pool, the beach or in a lake? Did you learn to swim? Or were you afraid of water? Share your watery stories with us. This could be one more scrapbooking idea for a project, and even if you don’t have a photo, you can create a layout just to share that story.
4 thoughts on “Remember when…? – Swimming”
I never learnt to swim, neither of my parents did. We had a council swimming pool not too far away but I didn’t go there till I was about 11 and we only went to the Seaside once or twice a year – and you could guarantee it would be cold and rainy. Like Sue’s Grandma my Mum told us we couldn’t go swimming in the rain because we would get wet!
I thought not being able to swim was going to be a problem when I went on a 4wd trip to the Kimberley region of Western Australia as the whole point of the trip was to spend as much time by waterholes and rivers as possible. I needn’t have worried, there was a plentiful supply of tyre inner tubes which made perfect rafts and floaties. It was a bit scary though to shine a torch over the lovely water we had swum in during the day and see the reflected eyes of crocodiles looking back at us! Fortunately these were the freshwater variety, not the man-eating salties we saw elsewhere in the area.
Neither my mother nor I could ever learn how to swim. Turns out we suffered from the same problem. Once I was playing around the pool with my brother (he could swim and was in the water; I was running around the slippery rim outside of the actual pool). Inevitably, I guess, I slipped and fell into the pool. I sank to the bottom of the pool and then, strangely, my feet bobbed to the surface. Just my feet. My brother thought it was pretty funny until he realized I couldn’t get myself out of the water and that only my feet were rising to the surface. He pulled me out quickly enough that I didn’t need any particular medical attention though it seemed like an eternity at the time. My mother shared with me, much later, that she couldn’t learn to swim because she was a “sinker.” Well, I took swimming lessons several times throughout my life–I mean, really, how tough could swimming be if babies and puppies can do it? Well, pretty tough, as it turns out, if your head sinks down and your feet float up. I finally gave up, much to the relief of my mother (to be fair, I don’t know whether or not her feet floated; she didn’t want to discuss it). I wasn’t particularly afraid of the water, but I don’t like my face covered with anything, which I’m sure is part of the problem (the other part is inadequate lungs that are causing me profound breathing problems now). In case you’re wondering, my feet are not large and certainly not big enough to allow me to walk across the surface of the water on these natural flotation devices, though that would be handy.
I don’t remember ever being afraid of water but had a healthy respect for it I think. This reminded me of my Grandmother. I lived in Galveston Texas when my parents came for a visit and brought her along. My Grandmother was terrified of water. When we went to the sea wall and started to drive down the ramp to the beach she got hysterical and thought the water would come up to the car and drown us. My Dad told us that when he was a boy she actually told him not to go in the water until he learned to swim. We thought that was so funny but I don’t think My Grandma appreciated our sense of humor.
Having a slow day; I had to read your story a couple of time to get the joke…but once I did, it made me chuckle. I guess your grandmother didn’t understand the problem with her logic.