Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Summer Games

No, not the London Olympics.  I am participating in WW, sharing the games we played as children in the summer.  Hop on by!



What I remember most about summertime is swimming.  Swimming, swimming, swimming.  I loved to swim, and still do.  There's something about being upheld and suspended in the water that is magical to me.  I often pretended that I was an amazing gymnast as I flipped and turned slow-motion in the water.  The underwater world is so quiet and peaceful.  If I could be an animal, I would choose an aquatic one, like a dolphin, so I could be in the water and cute.  Sometimes I would go underwater for as long as I could and watch the people swim above me while enjoying the quiet peace.  People referred to me as a mermaid, I think because I was a fast and graceful little swimmer.  Dancing ballet gave me gracefulness, and being in the water about five hours a day made me quick.

The little private pool we were members of did not allow children to swim alone until they were seven years old.  How I anticipated my seventh birthday!  My mother did not take me swimming nearly enough: I wanted to go alone, whenever I wanted.  Since the pool was in biking/walking distance, I was there a lot after the blessed birthday arrived.  I distinctly remember my swim "schedule."  Eat lunch at noon, swim from 1-3 pm, home from 3-3:30 for a popsicle while watching The Flintstones.  Go back and swim until 5.  Sometimes go back and swim after dinner.  The pool closed at 10.  And the best nights were the nights when my Dad made popcorn.  Our family loves popcorn, and eats it voraciously.

Besides swimming, we played outside all the time.  In our backyard was a sand area with a swing set where we'd pretend we were at the beach.  Our next-door neighbors were the types who had all the coolest toys: a trampoline, a Power Wheels, a plastic play house, you know the type.  Ponderosa pines grew aplenty in my hometown.  Using the needles from those trees, we would form "homes," or outlines of the rooms of our houses and play house.  Our neighbors also had a slight hill in their front yard, of which we took advantage and rolled out the Slip-n-slide.  (See!  My neighbors had everything!)  :)  And to top it all off, we had a field across from our house.  A whole field all to our own, full of prickly weeds, in which we could pretend anything.

Summers were magical.

3 comments:

Michael Family said...

Those summers were pretty fun!

Montserrat said...

Our neighbors has a pool growing up in Miami. We loved swimming in it an having races {it was an Olympic sized pool}. I often imagined they had a secret door that if opened would let sharks out to get me. That sure got me to swim faster!

Unknown said...

@Chocolate: Love the imagery of sharks chasing you! Your neighbors were cooler than mine, with an Olympic-sized pool!