With the very first paragraph I was immersed in the smell of cold chlorinated water, the splashing and squealing of the local swimming pool, the tiled cubicles of the high school shower room and the hiding of my chubby naked body from the other girls. This post brought back so many memories, Rebecca! Thank you for your always excellent writing. I invariably feel such empathy ( and sympathy) reading your stories. And this sentence is perhaps one of the saddest I have ever read - because it is an all-too-common thing: "[ My teacher was ] an unsympathetic woman with little aptitude for teaching and an undisguised dislike for children." I believe there is a special place in hell reserved for people like her. I had the same teacher, and because of her, I became the best teacher in the world. Ha ha ha ha! It's true.
Our worst teachers teach us a LOT, don't they, Sharron?!
And gosh, yes, I too was that chubby little girl in the changing room - although the changing rooms at the pool were to my utter relief NOT communal. Phew!
I am possibly a marginally ‘better’ swimmer but I think we get similar enjoyment from the experience. Thinking of @PrueBatten and her love of Tasmanian waters. Some people are real water babies. The rest of us will just have to make do. Hugs. 🤗🤗
I love reading Prue’s reports of her swims in the sea, Beth, even when it’s chilly! Amazing!
It’s lovely to just ‘be’ in the water; y’know, just hang around to bob up and down or float or just stand there enjoying the swell of the waves. Happy sigh!
I must have skipped over this one the first time round but I thoroughly enjoyed it this time. I love that you haven’t bothered to let ‘them’ tell you how swimming is done. I love your determination and steadfastness to keep at it no matter what others say or chuckle. And I love your observation that at the beach, everyone is able to enjoy their very own version of being in the water. And no one judges. Perfect! Thanks for the lovely story!
Awww Sabrina, thank you so much! I’m just wondering if I’ve ever swum in the water around your beautiful island - hmmmm, I don’t think so! Have definitely been for a few paddles, though - shoes off, trousers rolled up, getting sand in my socks when I’ve put my feet back in them! ☺️
For several summers when I was in high school/college, I worked on the lawn-mowing team for the town of Stratford, Connecticut. It was searing, sweaty work, commencing at 6am. But I was free by 2pm, at which point I would plunge into our public pool and swim a mile. Which took for freaking ever. But I could hear the people, poolside, asking "How long has he been in there?" and "I guess he's part dolphin" and "doesn't he have anything better to do?" Answers: 1. 45 minutes; 2. Correct--my appetite for fresh fish; 3. Well, I was only 18 at the time, so, no. Thanks for inviting us in for a swim!
Good for you. Your childhood "lessons" would've left me never wanting to enter the water again. Even after my fairly decent swimming lessons, I still can't swim much above a dog paddle either. Don't like that chlorine in my nose.
Once again, though, you have inspired me to write stories along this line. One my father told me about swimming in the Great Salt Lake. I've discovered it's quite true you can float in the lake without any effort or flotation devices whatsoever. His story involved a dare to swim from one beach beacon to another After swimming for what seemed like hours of getting none the closer, he told his friend he was going to see if he could touch the bottom. Indeed, he did. The water then came up to his waste and they walked the rest of the way.
And gosh, I didn't realise that you could float in the Great Salt Lake without trying - that's awesome! Dad showed me a picture once of him floating on the surface of the Dead Sea - that, too, is a lake far too salty to sink in (or at least that's what he told me!)!
All that salt ... that's what does it. I only wish briny lakes like the GSL and the Dead Sea weren't so icky. I didn't see any brine flies in the Dead Sea, but they swarm around the GSL as well as live in its waters. Another tinier lake is Mono Lake near the border with California and Nevada. The indigenous people who lived there would collect the brine shrimp in baskets and roast them to eat. They're so tiny, it takes hundreds of them to make a meal. I swear by all that holy, this is true. People eating brine shrimp. Now THAT'S a meager food environment.
Hundreds of shrimp to make a meal? Gosh, they must be the size of insects - and small ones, to boot! Goodness me - they must have been tasty enough to be worth the effort? I do hope so!
They're about the size of a pencil lead and probably taste yucky. But anything tastes better once it's BBQed. 😉 When you live in the desert, you'll eat anything you can find.
To be fair, these tribes, Paiute and Washo, wandered around in nuclear family groups, taking advantage of deer and elk migrations, fish, and of course, the yearly pine nut harvest. That was fun. Can you say "pine tar?" Again, food that tastes good after roasting. The Washoes would gather together during the summer at Lake Tahoe to harvest fish, deer, etc. there and let the youngsters get to know each other. Hot fun in the summer sun! 😆
Newsflash: If you move through the water without sinking, you can swim. Those who choose to offer unsolicited commentary on your form can take a hike.
When I was taking swimming lessons as a child, one of my teachers was my dear next-door neighbor. I was supposed to learn to dive, and was deathly afraid of doing so. She successfully bribed me to try by throwing coins in the pool and telling me I could keep them if I dived in for them. It worked!
That's the best definition of swimming I have ever read, Kerry - thank you!
And wow, smart diving teacher! 🤣 And gosh, well done for overcoming your fear of diving. I remember being taught how to crouch on the poolside and then just roll forward - I was proud to make it into the water headfirst and assumed that I'd mastered diving. Same teacher. Apparently THAT didn't count either. 🙄
I loved jumping off the high diving board when I went to the public pool with friends... until the time I got a little too creative and ended up slapping straight onto the water in a belly flop. There is nothing quite like the agony of an unexpected belly flop - I think my tummy was red for DAYS afterwards! 🤣
This brought back so many happy memories of days with my brother. The first was when l learnt to swim my brother had given me strict instructionns not to get in the pool until he had changed,. I didn't at least I remembered to put my arm bands on, I just forgot to blow them up. The shallowest end of the pool was 6 foot and it was only the two of us there. I was in the middle by the time he came out I never looked back. What is wrong with doggie paddle, its a recognised swimming stroke xxxs
Oh wow, that’s such a great story, Jo - LOL and OMG re the uninflated armbands! And wow, sounds like not having armbands to rely on had been just the thing to get you swimming - which is absolutely awesome! 🙌
I love the water - from a deck chair. I've always hated getting wet or cold - or both. School swims always involved a mean teacher head to toe in fleece, frisking about with a whistle! Absolutely hated it. Like you though I've tried as an adult to do better, including a humiliating enrollment in 'Swimming for the Terribly Terrified' at age 28 lol! I'm totally over it now. YOU are impressive though - and love your Dad xo
I loved swimming and still do, but I had a similar experience from a teacher when I was about ten. Basically told me I was useless but, as I realise now, didn't bother to tell me how I could improve. I also love outdoor swimming, but once Covid struck I cancelled my gym membership. Will probably join another one, but that only has an indoor pool. That's why I need to dig a big hole in the garden and have an outdoor pool.
Ooooh, an outdoor pool - that’s a very seasonal thing, though. Have you ever tried the ponds at Hampstead? On a work trip to London a couple of years ago I walked down to have a look - they looked absolutely amazing (although I’d definitely want a shower in Dettol afterwards)! 🤣
I haven’t tried it. I don’t like outdoor pools overhung by trees. I went to one in Suffolk a few years ago and the bottom was full of leaves. I felt I needed a bath in Dettol afterwards too!
A fine telling, Rebecca! (If I left my remark at that, I fear you might feel just like Samuel Clemons. “When people praise me I’m afraid they won’t say enough.” 😂
Due to an odd family circumstance, I didn’t know how to swim when I began college. But the new nautitorium to replace its forerunner (now demolished) stood incomplete. So my “swimming test” consisted of answering one question. “Do you know how to swim”? As I did want to learn to swim, I replied “No.” When work was completed I was notified I could begin swimming lessons. So glad I didn’t wriggle off the hook.
To me, Rebecca, this post seemed to capture your younger struggles to become the swimmer you thought you needed to be. Reading how your father respected your abilities, just as they were, offers the mark of a supportive family. “Not enough,” is a difficult phrase with which to contend. Having an excess of heat in Tallahassee, I’d gladly offer that warmth if it made your summer’s beach days more comfy. All the best!
Gosh, I absolutely love the word 'nautitorium' - what a great word for a pool! And what a great move you made to ensure that you would get to learn to swim.
Speaking of words for swimming pools, I'll never forget the giggles going around in an early French class at junior school when we learned that the word was 'piscine'! Childish, yes.... but we were children, so fair enough!
I'm so relieved, Rebecca. For a moment I thought you were going to tell us that you can't swim!
I remember learning to swim at the local YMCA. We were given various designations--guppies, minnows, sharks--depending on skill level and mastery. My parents had a family membership to a local country club (😬). Children had to prove their ability to tread water and swim a certain distance to be permitted in the "deep end." All of that went off without a hitch, and swim team experience later should have sealed the deal, but I still don't think of myself as much of a swimmer. I *can* swim, but I mostly dog paddle, because it's less like work!
Thanks for a delightful and memory-filled read, Rebecca! You have best dad, and the smiliest of smiles.
To be honest though, Elizabeth, I'm being a little over-generous in my estimations to have claimed that I CAN swim! 🤣 Although as Kerry said in her comment, floating without sinking is good enough for me!
As for those imaginative piscatorial designations, hmmmm, I'm probably a sea slug. Or a barnacle....
(I DO have the best Dad - thank you so much for saying so. I'm a very lucky girl.)
Enjoyed from the baby pool to the lovely swimming at the beach! I was raised by a WWII sailor, in a beach town. When I was 7 years old, the family was at the local swimming pool. My dad decided it was time for me to learn to swim, and he tossed me in the pool. Mom insisted he was watching me, and close by, it felt like he had thrown me into the middle of the deep end of the pool. I immediately began to dog paddle, to keep my little head above water. I was so upset!! To be fair, that was how 𝙝𝙚 learned to swim. It worked, I guess. But all I ever learned to do, was dog paddle. I did body surf with my brother, who, speaking of laughing, did a lot of it when I “wiped out”.. anyway, didn’t mean to tell my life story here. Your experience just triggered memory I had, about swimming. Thanks for your story, and also, your dad sounds like such a nice man!! 🥰
Oh my goodness me, Sharon - that could have gone sooooo wrong! 🫣 Well, your mom had given your dad strict instructions to be close by, so I guess you were safe - but wow, what an experience for a small child! YOU didn't know you were safe!
So glad that you shared this here - please claim a gazillion hugs to make your memories of that alarming swimming 'lesson' less traumatic! 🤗 x a gazillion.
Soooooooo proud of you, Rebecca. Swimming is swimming. The style is immaterial. It’s being suspended safely in the water that’s the thing. Go you! And as for your bitch of a teacher - I hope when she swam (probably couldn’t) that her goggles filled up, her flippers fell off and she lost her locker key at the deep end!
Awwww, thanks Prue - that means a lot to me, cos you're a proper swimmer!
I never saw that nasty woman in the pool, so hmmm, I wonder if she COULD swim? Maybe that's even why she was so horrid! Gosh, that makes me feel much better - I can now stop thinking about her striding up and down the length of the pool wearing her stupid tracksuit, blowing her infernal whistle and shouting at people. Ha! Instead, I'm imagining her hanging onto the side for dear life! 🤣
Sweet. Funny how one can love the water yet not have technical command of it. That would be me too.
Thanks, Carissa! 😀
With the very first paragraph I was immersed in the smell of cold chlorinated water, the splashing and squealing of the local swimming pool, the tiled cubicles of the high school shower room and the hiding of my chubby naked body from the other girls. This post brought back so many memories, Rebecca! Thank you for your always excellent writing. I invariably feel such empathy ( and sympathy) reading your stories. And this sentence is perhaps one of the saddest I have ever read - because it is an all-too-common thing: "[ My teacher was ] an unsympathetic woman with little aptitude for teaching and an undisguised dislike for children." I believe there is a special place in hell reserved for people like her. I had the same teacher, and because of her, I became the best teacher in the world. Ha ha ha ha! It's true.
Our worst teachers teach us a LOT, don't they, Sharron?!
And gosh, yes, I too was that chubby little girl in the changing room - although the changing rooms at the pool were to my utter relief NOT communal. Phew!
I am possibly a marginally ‘better’ swimmer but I think we get similar enjoyment from the experience. Thinking of @PrueBatten and her love of Tasmanian waters. Some people are real water babies. The rest of us will just have to make do. Hugs. 🤗🤗
Ha!
I love reading Prue’s reports of her swims in the sea, Beth, even when it’s chilly! Amazing!
It’s lovely to just ‘be’ in the water; y’know, just hang around to bob up and down or float or just stand there enjoying the swell of the waves. Happy sigh!
And hugs back, always! 😘
I must have skipped over this one the first time round but I thoroughly enjoyed it this time. I love that you haven’t bothered to let ‘them’ tell you how swimming is done. I love your determination and steadfastness to keep at it no matter what others say or chuckle. And I love your observation that at the beach, everyone is able to enjoy their very own version of being in the water. And no one judges. Perfect! Thanks for the lovely story!
Awww Sabrina, thank you so much! I’m just wondering if I’ve ever swum in the water around your beautiful island - hmmmm, I don’t think so! Have definitely been for a few paddles, though - shoes off, trousers rolled up, getting sand in my socks when I’ve put my feet back in them! ☺️
For several summers when I was in high school/college, I worked on the lawn-mowing team for the town of Stratford, Connecticut. It was searing, sweaty work, commencing at 6am. But I was free by 2pm, at which point I would plunge into our public pool and swim a mile. Which took for freaking ever. But I could hear the people, poolside, asking "How long has he been in there?" and "I guess he's part dolphin" and "doesn't he have anything better to do?" Answers: 1. 45 minutes; 2. Correct--my appetite for fresh fish; 3. Well, I was only 18 at the time, so, no. Thanks for inviting us in for a swim!
This is brilliant, Peter! But gadzooks, a mile? In only 45 minutes? It’d take me a WEEK! 🤣
That job sounds exhausting even without the swim afterwards - but you obviously enjoyed it, given that you went back every summer. Great work!
Good for you. Your childhood "lessons" would've left me never wanting to enter the water again. Even after my fairly decent swimming lessons, I still can't swim much above a dog paddle either. Don't like that chlorine in my nose.
Once again, though, you have inspired me to write stories along this line. One my father told me about swimming in the Great Salt Lake. I've discovered it's quite true you can float in the lake without any effort or flotation devices whatsoever. His story involved a dare to swim from one beach beacon to another After swimming for what seemed like hours of getting none the closer, he told his friend he was going to see if he could touch the bottom. Indeed, he did. The water then came up to his waste and they walked the rest of the way.
LOL
Awww Sue, thank you!
And gosh, I didn't realise that you could float in the Great Salt Lake without trying - that's awesome! Dad showed me a picture once of him floating on the surface of the Dead Sea - that, too, is a lake far too salty to sink in (or at least that's what he told me!)!
All that salt ... that's what does it. I only wish briny lakes like the GSL and the Dead Sea weren't so icky. I didn't see any brine flies in the Dead Sea, but they swarm around the GSL as well as live in its waters. Another tinier lake is Mono Lake near the border with California and Nevada. The indigenous people who lived there would collect the brine shrimp in baskets and roast them to eat. They're so tiny, it takes hundreds of them to make a meal. I swear by all that holy, this is true. People eating brine shrimp. Now THAT'S a meager food environment.
Hundreds of shrimp to make a meal? Gosh, they must be the size of insects - and small ones, to boot! Goodness me - they must have been tasty enough to be worth the effort? I do hope so!
They're about the size of a pencil lead and probably taste yucky. But anything tastes better once it's BBQed. 😉 When you live in the desert, you'll eat anything you can find.
To be fair, these tribes, Paiute and Washo, wandered around in nuclear family groups, taking advantage of deer and elk migrations, fish, and of course, the yearly pine nut harvest. That was fun. Can you say "pine tar?" Again, food that tastes good after roasting. The Washoes would gather together during the summer at Lake Tahoe to harvest fish, deer, etc. there and let the youngsters get to know each other. Hot fun in the summer sun! 😆
Newsflash: If you move through the water without sinking, you can swim. Those who choose to offer unsolicited commentary on your form can take a hike.
When I was taking swimming lessons as a child, one of my teachers was my dear next-door neighbor. I was supposed to learn to dive, and was deathly afraid of doing so. She successfully bribed me to try by throwing coins in the pool and telling me I could keep them if I dived in for them. It worked!
That's the best definition of swimming I have ever read, Kerry - thank you!
And wow, smart diving teacher! 🤣 And gosh, well done for overcoming your fear of diving. I remember being taught how to crouch on the poolside and then just roll forward - I was proud to make it into the water headfirst and assumed that I'd mastered diving. Same teacher. Apparently THAT didn't count either. 🙄
I loved jumping off the high diving board when I went to the public pool with friends... until the time I got a little too creative and ended up slapping straight onto the water in a belly flop. There is nothing quite like the agony of an unexpected belly flop - I think my tummy was red for DAYS afterwards! 🤣
This brought back so many happy memories of days with my brother. The first was when l learnt to swim my brother had given me strict instructionns not to get in the pool until he had changed,. I didn't at least I remembered to put my arm bands on, I just forgot to blow them up. The shallowest end of the pool was 6 foot and it was only the two of us there. I was in the middle by the time he came out I never looked back. What is wrong with doggie paddle, its a recognised swimming stroke xxxs
Oh wow, that’s such a great story, Jo - LOL and OMG re the uninflated armbands! And wow, sounds like not having armbands to rely on had been just the thing to get you swimming - which is absolutely awesome! 🙌
Loved this one more the second time round as I know you better - your precise wit is so keen. Such a great post, RH.
Awww Mary, you’re always so kind! This post made me think of you all the way through - your swimming habit is absolutely brilliant! xxx
❤️
I love the water - from a deck chair. I've always hated getting wet or cold - or both. School swims always involved a mean teacher head to toe in fleece, frisking about with a whistle! Absolutely hated it. Like you though I've tried as an adult to do better, including a humiliating enrollment in 'Swimming for the Terribly Terrified' at age 28 lol! I'm totally over it now. YOU are impressive though - and love your Dad xo
‘I love the water - from a deck chair.’ 🤣🤣🤣 Sue, that’s absolutely brilliant! I can definitely get behind that idea, certainly.
And yes, my Dad is adorable! (And always makes me laugh when he comes out with things like that!) x
I loved swimming and still do, but I had a similar experience from a teacher when I was about ten. Basically told me I was useless but, as I realise now, didn't bother to tell me how I could improve. I also love outdoor swimming, but once Covid struck I cancelled my gym membership. Will probably join another one, but that only has an indoor pool. That's why I need to dig a big hole in the garden and have an outdoor pool.
Ooooh, an outdoor pool - that’s a very seasonal thing, though. Have you ever tried the ponds at Hampstead? On a work trip to London a couple of years ago I walked down to have a look - they looked absolutely amazing (although I’d definitely want a shower in Dettol afterwards)! 🤣
I haven’t tried it. I don’t like outdoor pools overhung by trees. I went to one in Suffolk a few years ago and the bottom was full of leaves. I felt I needed a bath in Dettol afterwards too!
A fine telling, Rebecca! (If I left my remark at that, I fear you might feel just like Samuel Clemons. “When people praise me I’m afraid they won’t say enough.” 😂
Due to an odd family circumstance, I didn’t know how to swim when I began college. But the new nautitorium to replace its forerunner (now demolished) stood incomplete. So my “swimming test” consisted of answering one question. “Do you know how to swim”? As I did want to learn to swim, I replied “No.” When work was completed I was notified I could begin swimming lessons. So glad I didn’t wriggle off the hook.
To me, Rebecca, this post seemed to capture your younger struggles to become the swimmer you thought you needed to be. Reading how your father respected your abilities, just as they were, offers the mark of a supportive family. “Not enough,” is a difficult phrase with which to contend. Having an excess of heat in Tallahassee, I’d gladly offer that warmth if it made your summer’s beach days more comfy. All the best!
Thanks so much, Gary!
Gosh, I absolutely love the word 'nautitorium' - what a great word for a pool! And what a great move you made to ensure that you would get to learn to swim.
Speaking of words for swimming pools, I'll never forget the giggles going around in an early French class at junior school when we learned that the word was 'piscine'! Childish, yes.... but we were children, so fair enough!
Memories are sort of glue that anchors us in our lifetimes! Thanks for sharing your memories, Rebecca Holden.
I'm so relieved, Rebecca. For a moment I thought you were going to tell us that you can't swim!
I remember learning to swim at the local YMCA. We were given various designations--guppies, minnows, sharks--depending on skill level and mastery. My parents had a family membership to a local country club (😬). Children had to prove their ability to tread water and swim a certain distance to be permitted in the "deep end." All of that went off without a hitch, and swim team experience later should have sealed the deal, but I still don't think of myself as much of a swimmer. I *can* swim, but I mostly dog paddle, because it's less like work!
Thanks for a delightful and memory-filled read, Rebecca! You have best dad, and the smiliest of smiles.
To be honest though, Elizabeth, I'm being a little over-generous in my estimations to have claimed that I CAN swim! 🤣 Although as Kerry said in her comment, floating without sinking is good enough for me!
As for those imaginative piscatorial designations, hmmmm, I'm probably a sea slug. Or a barnacle....
(I DO have the best Dad - thank you so much for saying so. I'm a very lucky girl.)
Enjoyed from the baby pool to the lovely swimming at the beach! I was raised by a WWII sailor, in a beach town. When I was 7 years old, the family was at the local swimming pool. My dad decided it was time for me to learn to swim, and he tossed me in the pool. Mom insisted he was watching me, and close by, it felt like he had thrown me into the middle of the deep end of the pool. I immediately began to dog paddle, to keep my little head above water. I was so upset!! To be fair, that was how 𝙝𝙚 learned to swim. It worked, I guess. But all I ever learned to do, was dog paddle. I did body surf with my brother, who, speaking of laughing, did a lot of it when I “wiped out”.. anyway, didn’t mean to tell my life story here. Your experience just triggered memory I had, about swimming. Thanks for your story, and also, your dad sounds like such a nice man!! 🥰
Oh my goodness me, Sharon - that could have gone sooooo wrong! 🫣 Well, your mom had given your dad strict instructions to be close by, so I guess you were safe - but wow, what an experience for a small child! YOU didn't know you were safe!
So glad that you shared this here - please claim a gazillion hugs to make your memories of that alarming swimming 'lesson' less traumatic! 🤗 x a gazillion.
I felt those hugs, every one of them! Thanks, Rebecca!
Soooooooo proud of you, Rebecca. Swimming is swimming. The style is immaterial. It’s being suspended safely in the water that’s the thing. Go you! And as for your bitch of a teacher - I hope when she swam (probably couldn’t) that her goggles filled up, her flippers fell off and she lost her locker key at the deep end!
Awwww, thanks Prue - that means a lot to me, cos you're a proper swimmer!
I never saw that nasty woman in the pool, so hmmm, I wonder if she COULD swim? Maybe that's even why she was so horrid! Gosh, that makes me feel much better - I can now stop thinking about her striding up and down the length of the pool wearing her stupid tracksuit, blowing her infernal whistle and shouting at people. Ha! Instead, I'm imagining her hanging onto the side for dear life! 🤣
Lovely