We did things differently.
Take our annual swimming lessons for instance.
With the end of school in late June, we kids headed each morning for the pristine white beaches of Presqu’ile Park located a few miles south of our village - on Lake Ontario.
We went there for our annual swimming lessons which lasted a few weeks over late June and early July.
The swimming lessons, dear reader, were conducted on the pristine white beaches; not, unfortunately in the cold waters of the Lake.
Back in those days, all prior to Global Warming, Lake Ontario did not warm up sufficiently for swimming until very late July or more likely, early to mid August.
Ergo we took our lessons in the sand.
As you can imagine, I became quite proficient swimming in sand but not so in water.
Sand swimming had advantages other than just being warmer than water, but admittedly, sand diving did present its special challenges.
We did not realize it at the time, but I suspect our swimming teachers were preparing us for life down the road in arid countries like Saudi Arabia. Swimming through their famous sand storms would be a breeze for our Brighton Swim Contingent.
Had things been left at that, I would have been okay but after two or three years of sand swimming, my mother lost her patience (she was raised in Toronto and did not always understand nor appreciate the niceties of our small town)
The following year she enrolled me in intermediate lessons. Sadly, these lessons took place at the public dock on Brighton Bay where the waters were over 20 feet deep.
So there I was one frosty morning in June, at the dock, after having completed two to three years of beginner sand swimming lessons.
I can still hear my instructor even now asking me if I knew how to swim? Since he did not specify water or sand swimming, I said I did.
“Jump in” he said, and away I went…all the way 20 feet down to the bottom.
You know that white bright light near deaths talk about seeing? Well I saw it that fateful morning at Brighton Bay.
Even today, I am not much of a water swimmer but you should see me go like a fish on sand.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’