Remember that line from your childhood? Usually yelled by a bunch of other kids as all would be chasing and racing to jump into the water at a nearby lake or woodland stream with a nice deep hole or even, if you were lucky, into a nice big clear swimming pool!
When I was a kid, the main spot for many of us was a pond located at a farm a couple of miles from home here and often some of us -after we were in our teens -would either bicycle out there or even, if we were really ambitious and really felt the extreme need for a cool swim, we might even gather together and walk out to this place.
It was a swimming hole I liked a good bit and yet, I didn't like it at the same time.
My dislike of this place stemmed from two things.
One was there was no way you could just wade into the water. Instead, you had to jump off a make-shift diving board that was only about 2 foot, at most, above the water and I was never into jumping much less diving then. (Actually I tried to jump off that board ONE time and ONE time only and somehow instead of just jumping, I ended up taking a belly-flopper and I think my stomach burned and smarted the rest of the day!
The other thing I didn't like about that place ties in with the not being able to wade in as the bottom -if you could touch it -was long, long grass and it terrified me to have my toes touch that much less any other part of my body!
Yeah, you could describe me probably with respect to my swimming days then as being pretty much of a wimp.
Today, swimming is something I have done I think exactly once in the past 10-12 years -maybe even a larger gap than that!
Why? Well perhaps if I could something from coco reef swimwear plus size in a design I liked and in a size and style that fit me and hid a multitude of fat sins, I might at least consider visiting a state park about 10 miles from where I live and might even consider indulging in a little bit of a dip in the water there then.
Well, maybe I would do that and maybe not too.
Why not? Well, it is a very nice park, dam or small lake -whatever you care to call it there -and it is fed by a mountain stream call Black Moshannon Creek so, naturally, the park is called Black Moshannon State Park. Around these parts though most everyone refers to it as "Blackie" and not just for the fact of the name of the park and the stream.
The other factor behind referring to it as Blackie is that after swimming there for any amount of time, you would exit the water looking -often -as dark as if you'd been tanning all year round to become a bathing beauty.
Actually we shouldn't call it Blackie though because the water in that dam has a high amount of sulfur content in it apparently and tends to turn one's limbs and body more of a rust color instead of blackish and it has been know to be rather unkind then too if you dared to wear a very expensive swimsuit there!
The last time I went swimming was about 5-6 years ago now and it was in the above ground pool my next door neighbors had at that time. And, because of my inability to find a reasonably priced swimsuit that fits me, my outfit that time consisted of cut-off shorts and a tee shirt.
Heck I could have had my own wet tee-shirt contest, couldn't I have?
Maybe next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment