Ten Things I Did In Water
Stories of a few slippery encounters
I grew up near the water, across the street from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, with the marina and inlet on the other side of a small peninsula of land called Willoughby Spit. We spent a lot of time in and around the water, and I think I was lucky to be raised so close to the sea.
- Waded in Flood Water:
One drawback of living on a small spit of land originally put there by a hurricane is that makes you especially vulnerable to all passing hurricanes thereafter!
When I was a kid in the 80s we were less likely to evacuate than people would probably be nowadays, and when hurricane Gloria hit we unsurprisingly got flooded. Most houses were built up high enough to be ok but I do remember wading around outside in it for uh, fun I guess! The local newspaper came and took pictures of us beach rat kids posing in the floodwaters, it was a great time!
2. Caught a Shark:
I caught a (baby) shark when I was 10. I went fishing with my Dad a lot growing up. We fished in rivers, lakes, off piers, and occasionally, in the ocean.
We went out into the Chesapeake Bay near where I lived in a small motor boat. My dad went often went fishing for different things, and this was during his fishing for sharks phase.
I remember the day because I REALLY didn’t want to be on the boat. I didn't like feeling the waves rocking the boat. I was ok with lakes or preferably land fishing, this was outside my comfort zone.
When my pole got the bite it was very strong, and my dad got excited. He helped me, but let me reel it in. When I finally got it in the boat it turned out it was a baby shark, but it was still bigger than any fish I had ever caught.
After some celebrations, we put it back in the water. I remember my dad bragging about me catching a shark to anyone who would listen for a while. I felt weird about it because I didn't really like fishing, but I did like my dad being proud of me.
3. Swam on my high school swim team:
More of a theatre geek than an athlete, I guess I decided I needed to pad out my college resume a bit the summer before my junior year. I was not a particularly strong swimmer, but I had always had a decent backstroke (or so I thought).
My history teacher was the swim coach, and he and the other team members were generous with their time and help in teaching me the four swimming strokes, which are the freestyle (front crawl), breast, backstroke, and my personal nemesis, the butterfly.
I had to re-learn almost everything I knew about swimming, as well as learn to dive properly and how to flip turn underwater.
I don't think I realized at the time how out of my depth I was (so to speak!). There were a couple of other swimmers who were at my level or thereabouts, and everyone encouraged us with as much energy as the fastest swimmers on the team.
I underestimated how much time and commitment it would take, but I loved being a part of a team, a bit to my surprise.
We swam laps for hours in the chlorine water, its sweet bleachy chemical perfume seeped into our hair and pores. We sang along to a boombox tape of The Violent Femmes on the bus to meets and cheered each other poolside, screaming until our voices were gone.
We wore two or three swimsuits to practice so that on race day our skin-tight race suit would feel light and we would feel we had a superhero speed all of a sudden. My coach started to race me with the other slowpokes, everyone got a shot.
My strongest stroke ended up being the freestyle, I even deluded myself I was getting good. But I quit my senior year, I think a combination of knowing I would never catch up/make a real difference to the team, and my best friend returning after a year away, led me to prioritize “senioritis”. Ah, youth.
4. End of Night Out Showers:
This is a time capsule thing, but I remember when people were still allowed to smoke in bars and clubs. If you were a non-smoker and didn’t like to go to bed smelling of smoke you would take these dazed, a bit drunken showers before crawling into bed late at night.
It was the only way to way to avoid waking up smelling like an ashtray, and kids today will never know this extra step to feeling human in the morning!
5. Played on Slip ‘N Slides:
No one in my neighborhood growing up had a pool in the summer, we did have slip ‘n slides though! The glory of hurling your young body on a slippery wet piece of yellow plastic and careening down any available slopes was a joy not to be matched as a kid in the 80s. Hopefully, Mom would be waiting with a jug of Kool-Aid.
6. Skinny Dipped:
There was a lake with a rope swing the next town over, and my friends and I went there one night the summer after graduation. I guess we must have planned on skinny dipping because no one had swimsuits. The moonlight emitted a soft glow as we all braved the rope and flew into the dark water, not knowing what the future held but feeling alive and limitlessly young at that moment.
7. Snorkelled in Key West:
I lived with my Mom the summer after my sophomore year in college in Vero Beach. We drove down to Key West and went out on a boat where you could snorkel or scuba dive. We didn’t know how to scuba so we snorkeled. I remember getting scared of the stingrays and giant fish. I am not that brave when it comes to confronting ocean life close up, despite my shark fishing days!
8. Fell in love with Norway’s fjords:
I went to Norway around four years ago with my Mom, it was her choice of destination, not mine. I already live in a rainy country (Scotland), why would I want to visit another one? I was proven very wrong though. While it did rain in Norway (a lot) and it was unseasonably cold, I fell head over heels for the breathtaking beauty of the country.
We took a couple of boat fjord tours and got up close with waterfalls. I loved how clean the water and the air were. It was gorgeous and I hope to see more of the country someday. I have a feeling the water would be pretty chilly to swim in though!
9. Hung out at motel pools as a kid: My Mom was a hostess at the Holiday Inn, and my friend’s mom cleaned various other motels in our hood, so it was not uncommon for us to (with permission) gatecrash random motel pools. We couldn’t really swim in the bay where I lived because it was jellyfish central.
A day at the pool made us feel fancy, we would get grape sodas and sour cream and onion chips from the vending machines and pretend we were grown-ups living our best lives.
10. Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico:
When I visit my Mom where she lives in Florida every year whenever I get the chance we hit the beach. It is one of my favorite things in life to wade into the gentle, oasis-like waters of the gulf. The water is almost always warm, and stretches out in endless shallows, with sandbars and turquoise water so clear you can see to the bottom on a nice day.
Most days we see dolphins, and all kinds of birds, and if you are lucky you can see manatees at the tip of the island.
Sometimes I do a lazy backstroke but mostly I just float, without a care in the world, letting the ocean move me around gently where it wants as the sun bounces off my bobbing, weightless form. Bliss.
This is my response to the Globetrotters publication’s June prompt, Flow like Water , check it out!
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