Swimming: Part One

When I was five years old, the day that I had awaited all summer finally arrived.  My mother’s best friend, Hellen, arrived from Seattle with her husband and youngest son, who was my age.  My memories are of Dip ‘N Sticks, Fizzies, Lick M Aid and Hellen’s cigarette smoke, which seemed quite glamorous.

Then one day we all drove to the beach. I think it was La Jolla or Laguna. The two families walked down a sandstone cliff trail and spread the towels and food on the sand.  The two dads and my mom went into the water.  Hellen watched us as my sister, her son and I made sand castles.

I remember hearing the screams of “help me” and I don’t think it really registered that it was MY people who were in trouble.  The riptide pulled them out and under, and only two were rescued.  My parents. My next memory was of being left in the car outside of the mortuary for a very long time. I also remember thinking about giant squids. I must have recently seen Captain Nemo on a Disney program and giant squids were the most frightening things I had ever seen.

I think it must have been the following summer that my mother, sister and I began our regular treks to the Glendale YWCA for swimming lessons. I was in heaven.

I loved the smell of the eye-watering chlorine, the adventure of walking through the two-inch deep foot bath that was meant to prevent athlete’s foot, the lockers with their little keys on a safety-pin that ended up making holes in the fabric of your suit, and the teacher who spread our toes to look for fungus.

There were levels:  Tadpoles and something else and then Sharks.  As my mom sat on the bleachers and watched, I progressed up the ranks.  I quickly became a Shark. The reward was a small, gray felt shark that was meant to be sewn onto my suit.

After each lesson, we would cross the street to a large supermarket that had an ice cream counter.  I think the cones were 5cents.  But that now seems unbelievably cheap and I’m not sure my memory is correct.. My sister wasn’t into the swimming as much as I was.  She was in it for the ice cream.