A Year of Blogging: June 24, 2011

June 24 was 'Swim a Lap Day'. Well I can tell you, that won't happen with me! Even if I had a pool, I wouldn't be swimming laps. A friend commented on my post about summer, and my remark about bathing suits with 'don't you swim?'. As a matter of fact, I don't. It's not that I don't know how. Technically, I do know how to swim. Although it's been so long since I've done it, that perhaps I've forgotten. My father is an incredible swimmer. He took lifeguard training as a teenager. My mother cannot swim. She never learned to swim. Her father never learned to swim, which I find odd because he was a Boy Scout for years. I can't remember if Grandma Wager could swim, but I think she could. When we went to the beach, Grandpa sat in a chair by the car, and Grandma was the one who went with us to the water. Mom decided her girls were going to know how to swim. She signed us up for swimming lessons. We went to Troy every Sunday after church, and took swimming lessons at the Community Center. My sister took to the swimming lessons like she was part fish. I hated it. Have you ever been to a community center, and watched kids taking swimming lessons? Have you seen the child standing on the side of the pool, arms wrapped around themselves, screaming their head off and refusing to get into the pool? That was me! The community center was indoors, so my screams bounced off the metal bleachers surrounding the pool. Other parents looked at me thinking 'thank god she's not mine!' My parents kept encouraging me "Come on, honey, get in the pool." I finally made my way into the shallow end, but when we had to jump off the diving board into the deep end, all bets were off. There was no getting me into the pool. My sister told the instructor she'd dive for me. The instructor said I wouldn't pass if I didn't do it myself. I didn't care if I passed or not, I wasn't going in. I have never liked getting my face wet. Mom said I was like that as a kid, when she would give me a bath. I had to tip my head back to her so she could wash my hair. I still do not like getting my face wet. I stand in the shower with my back to the water and wash my hair, and then turn around to face the shower, my face turned away from the water, to wash my body. Of course, I wash my face. In the sink, with a washcloth before my shower. So diving into the deep end meant getting my face wet. I also didn't swim the breast stroke, because you have to put your face into the water. Eww. I could do the back float just fine. I also get claustrophobic when the water came up to my chest. My throat starts closing up. I can't watch movies with underwater scenes, I get that same feeling. I have never seen Titanic, for this very reason. Mom and Dad thought perhaps the swim school, where everyone was a stranger to me, was too stressful. So they also signed me up for swimming lessons offered by our youth commission at the local park during the summer. Swimming lessons lasted three weeks. We went for a couple of hours each afternoon. For my sister, it was the best part of summer. For me, it felt like Hell. The Youth Commission swimming lessons were done by age group. Beginners wore red-caps (oh those stiff rubber caps! They were always too tight and it felt like your brain was being sucked out of them). You were supposed to progress up through different colors. I think yellow and white caps were at the top of the food chain. Those were the ones who were eligible for life guard testing. The higher up your group was, the further away from shore you could swim. Red-caps stayed on the shoreline, practicing kicking in water that barely covered your stomach. My sister and I started out in the same group. She excelled, and each year she was moved up. After a few years of being a red cap, they finally promoted me out of pity. Laura was well beyond me, swimming circles around me. Finally, I was about 12 or 13 when Mom and Dad decided I didn't have to endure this torture any longer. Mom decided I knew the basics, and Dad said I didn't enjoy it, I wasn't going to learn any more. It was the happiest summer! Whenever our family traveled, we always looked for a hotel with a pool. We barely got settled in the room before Dad & Laura changed into their suits and took off for the pool. Mom and I followed reluctantly, covering our suits with cover-ups and towels. Then we sat at the edge of the pool, dangling our feet into the water, watching the fish members of our family swim. We still do this. Mom and I are perfectly content to dip our toes in the water, while Dad and Laura swim for hours. I do enjoy hot tubs, but you don't have to swim in those- you can just relax.