Thursday Throwback

Summer is calling me! Enjoy my trip back down memory lane.

Originally posted June 19, 2005




Sitting under the wooden trellis, watching mini-me swim, brought back such fond memories of my swimming days. I will get in the water now, but not with the whismical abandonment of yesteryear.

There are two timeframes that I remember when it comes to swimming and they are age ranges -

Ages 7-12: This was the time when it was all about a cross between fear and excitment about getting in the water. I can remember walking the blocks with my brother and friends to Mosley Park on our quest to cool off. We crossed MLK Jr. Drive (You know that's the indentifying street in the hood) and ran all the way to the pool. It was teeming with black wet bodies of all ages and we couldn't wait to get in there! It was all about getting in slowly and letting the water wet you in stages. You then just kinda drifted around among the crowd looking for a space to belong. I can remember the jumping contest, the stand on your head contests and the whistles of the lifeguards CONSTANTLy blowing because we were always in violation of some 'pool rule' that was written and faded on a broken sign over on the fence, lol No Roughhousing, No Running, No Floats blah blah blah - who's reading. Since I started wearing glasses at nine - my entire swim career has also been BLIND!! I used to wear my glasses in the pool - bump that! but usually I would have to take them off and put them in the locker and thus most of the scenery I MISSED, lol

We would swim for hours until the final whistle blowed and a throng of sun and water dusty young negroes would pick up whatever towel was nearest, even if it wasn't yours and head on home.

For some of us there was another rite of childhood the "we going to so and so's house who lives in an apartment so you can swim" now that was the joint! While your parents sat around you acted a plum fool in the apartment pool, lol It was always too deep and I would cling on to the side but there you could have floats and balls and whatnot so great games of water tag etc. went on. You would get bold and slide over to splas yo momma who then said if you did it again she was gonna beat your ass and then everyone would fall out laughing Ahhh the joys of childhood, then came...

Ages 12-15: The age of discovery. This is when swimming took on a whole new meaning. You would 'prep' to go to the pool and by this time I was living in an apartment so it was a day in advance before I set foot on that concrete for the first swim of the summer. This was the country club. Moms was like NO BIKINI's so you searched the Zayre's for the very best swimsuit - one that accentuated your budding figure. Then it was all about a real beach towel and flip flops to match, lol As everyone gathered at the pool - somethings had changed, the boy who used to dunk you unmercifully in the pool, now all of a sudden had definition to his chest and his little arm muscles had started budding and as we all jumped in the pool - do I remember the water sizzling? The games became contact sports and you wanted to ride a boys back, have him carry you, pick you up - just touch you with that wet budding body of his, lol Laying on the floats hoping he would turn you over so you can come up out the water and make your 32-34 a's or b's (hey back in the day we didnt' have as many chemicals so our breasts were NORMAL size, lol) jump ever so slightly in your bathing suite, praying you had some kinda cleavage. You learned how to lean back in the water wetting your hair and slicking it back. It was all about look at me, see me, hey do you see me, lol lol Is this a pool or a jacuzzi cause the water is bubbling. The girls would all lean on the side of the pool watching the boys walk by trying to look up their swim shorts cause there was always one boy who made sure his dick was OUT OF THE SWIMTRUNK NETTING for all to see, lol lol

No parents ever came to the pool during teenage time, lol lol So we would do all kinds of crazy stuff from putting all the deck chairs in the pool and sitting on them to bringing umbrellas for shade and one time even so we could swim in the rain (why we are not dead, I have no idea, lol) We would bring UNO cards and sit and play and talk and listen to music no someone's busted radio. It was all about fun and sun and no worries...it was all about Swim Time In The Summer.

Out of all that fun, however, I never learned how to swim! I do a mean doggy paddle and I can do the dead man float and when I was really showing out I would do an overhand stroke underwater, but otherwise I can't swim a lick, lol Go Figure!