Swimming

Summer is officially here. I don’t take part in warm weather activities like I did when I was young, but I like to linger over the sweet memories of those long ago lazy summer days. Swimming was a twice a day activity at the city pool when the eight of us children were old enough to be at the pool without a parent. We were in the water from the time the pool opened in the morning until we went home for lunch. We had to wait a full hour after eating before Mom allowed us to go back to the pool for the afternoon. It was only a few blocks, about a ten minute walk from our house.

Food and ‘pop’ (soft drinks) was not allowed at the pool but if the attendants were in a good mood they would give permission to leave and return without additional charge if we wanted to buy snacks from the vendor outside the pool gates. We had nickels and dimes for morning and afternoon snacks, but no matter how many ice creams or fudge bars we ate in the morning, we were ravenous at noon.

Mom cooked our lunches in a big canning size pressure cooker. She called the meals English Boiled Dinners. There were layers of pans filled with fresh vegetables from our garden and meat. Dad always walked home for lunch and Mom was ready to serve the minute he walked in the door. She let the steam out of the cooker, removed the lid and lifted out the trays of pans, each containing a separate vegetable. There was always a freshly baked pie or cake. I liked Gooseberry or Rhubarb pie best but she made Banana Cream or Coconut Cream pies as well as Pineapple Upside Down or Burnt Sugar cakes, which were my second favorites. We drank pitchers of lemonade, orangeade and grape Kool-Aid.

One summer day I developed an abscessed ear that caused me to lose my hearing. The Dr was concerned that I might become totally deaf and I started to learn sign language, but after some weeks, my hearing returned and I stopped learning to sign. Since that time however, I always wear a nose guard when I dive while swimming. Jerry, the smallest and youngest of my brothers, learned to swim long before I did. He was like a fish in the water and had no fear of the diving boards and accepted all dares to jump off the highest board. My brother, Charles, liked to play water polo and was quite good at it. I enjoy swimming, but am not good at it. I can chug along, but I’d never win a race.