S is for Swimming

My first memories of swimming happened when I was in pre-school at Duke University. Yes, that's right. I attended Duke as a very young child while my dad was working towards his Ph.D. in Theology. My brothers and I took lessons from a former possible Olympian whose name may have been Dr. or Mr. Persons. By the mid-60s he was an old man, so he taught from the pool deck while his students were in the water with us. I will never forget his resounding voice urging us to, "Kick, kick, kick..." from the sidelines.

Surely I took additional lessons once we moved to Harrisonburg in 1969, but perhaps not. In any case, I had learned enough to swim independently at Westover Pool as well as at the swimming pool back at Highland Retreat Mennonite Camp in Bergton, Virginia (almost West Virginia) throughout the 1970s. As a teenager I was trying front flips, back flips and one-and-a-halves off the low diving board to impress one or another of my crushes.

Solo bike rides to and from the swimming pool to meet friends for summer afternoons was my first taste of freedom. As a young adult, I worked a temporary office job one summer at the Harrisonburg Department of Recreation, in the building beside Westover Pool. That summer I swam a lot of laps while remembering the big decisions about how to spend my childhood allowance at the snack bar: a salty-sweet PayDay bar? A classic ice cream sandwich? Some french fries doused in ketchup? My dollar was not enough for more than one of those delicacies, along with some ice water, so I had to choose carefully.

As an adult, swimming laps has been my mainstay in the realm of regular exercise. I especially appreciated the outdoor pool at my Belleview condo when I was a new teacher. The laps helped me decompress from my long days. Later in life, as an at home mother of small children, I found the midday lap swim to be a perfect escape for some me-time, and would schedule teenaged babysitters accordingly. Most recently, right before the quarantine began, I had returned to water aerobics for the first time since my pregnancies, and was really enjoying those workouts.

Now I find myself concerned about whether or not the high school indoor pools will reopen for lap swimming, or whether the regional outdoor pools that we've enjoyed in recent years will open at all. Will this summer be a complete wash-out where local swimming is concerned? Or will the muddied waters soon become clear? And speaking of muddy waters, maybe we will plan weekly explorations of regional lakes, such as Cunningham Falls near Frederick, Maryland or Lake Arrowhead, in Luray, Virginia. There is also Chris Greene Lake on the way to Charlottesville....

Life Lesson: Necessity is the mother of invention.