I did not swim in a swimming pool till I was in college. We always had the lake: Kauneonga Lake. I learned to swim and spent many summer hours perfecting this skill in our lake. As I spent many hours relaxing on our dock with my family and friends.
My family and friends in Kauneonga Lake.
I never swam laps, I just swam as fast as I could to get away from my brother and my boy cousins who tried to push me into the mushy gush…the yucky seaweeds that lined the bottom of the lake in the areas where we did not swim as much.
Sometimes we swam back and forth between our dock and the dock that the people in Cooper Drive used. But that meant keeping our legs up. The gush was thick between the two docks. And it wasn’t just the gush, there were also fish and turtles that would snap and nibble at your toes if you got too close.
I could stay afloat for hours. We did not have life jackets. When we were little we had brightly colored tubes. But eventually I out grew those and just swam. If we stayed within the area designated by the adults, then the water was not over our heads. It was when we tried to swim too far that danger lurked. But we knew how to tread water and make it back to the sandy area with no effort.
Lake water swimming was the best. The water was cool and fresh. There were very few boats on the water when I was a child, except for canoes and rowboats. It was not until I was in my teens that speed boats in large numbers showed up on the lake.
The only negative about lake swimming? We always knew when someone went to the bathroom in the lake! If you hit a warm spot, you knew that was disgusting. Warm spots were sure signs of accidental lake peeing.
There was a pool at the bungalow colony up the road from us, where my grandparents’ friends owned, Kauneonga Park. But I never swam there. I know my brother swam there when he worked at the colony’s camp during the summer. But I never went into the pool. It seemed odd to get into a cement box filled with water and chlorine. I did go and look at it. But I never got in.
When I got to college, I had to go into a pool for the first time. We had to pass a swimming test and show that we could swim four laps and jump into the pool. I was not happy. But to get my college degree from Drew University, in New Jersey, that was a requirement.
Ugh. I did not own water goggles. In the lake, I just opened my eyes to look around. In a pool, this is much more difficult. Your eyes burn from the chlorine. Ouch. So, during my test, I had to close my eyes. Swimming laps with your eyes closed is very difficult. I could not stay in my lane. In any case, I never swam in a lane in my life. Lake swimming is much more haphazard. Not being able to see made it worse.
I did go four laps, but they were not pretty. The coach called me out several times for crossing into someone’s lane. She told me to go buy a pair of goggles for my next pool experience. But I never had one. I passed the lap test.
I passed the jumping in test: arms across your chest, feet first into the pool. “Why?” I asked. In case you are ever in a cruise ship and need to abandon ship was the answer. I never thought I would need that talent, but I will admit I have been on many a cruise and I have thought about learning to jump!
To this day, I do not love pool swimming. I do not like the chlorine or the feel of concrete. However, I have learned to enjoy the beauty of water aerobics in a pool and the ease of floating on noodles.
To be honest, I much rather go to the lake in the Catskills, and slowly walk in. First testing the water with my toes to feel the temperature and finally sinking to my neck. I do not do it very often, but when I do I feel great. Lake swimming will always be the best!
zicharonot 