Crabgrass by Tauhid Bondia for May 26, 2024

True wisdom is learning not just from your own mistakes but also from the mistakes of others.

Gene’s a good guy. Also Gene’s father is able to make cigarettes float.

We had to pass swimming to graduate fifth grade, in the 70s. It greatly reduced the number of children drowned every year in our county. Disproportionally minority children, who owned fewer boats, had fewer private pools, had less access to pools in their neighborhoods, and because their parents hadn’t been allowed to use white pools in the 60s, had less of a culture of swimming.

In other words, kiddo, your ancestors fought for the right to learn to swim, learn to swim.

Just because you can swim doesn’t mean you’re going to want to do it ever again. Do it because you like it, not because someone else forced you to.

Gene is such a great father, not wanting to repeat his own father’s mistakes.

When I lived by the Potomac River it was said the parents would throw their kids off the end of a pier and say, “Sink or swim”. They all learned to swim real quick.

Times were way different back then.

My father had been a camp counselor and knew how to teach children how to swim. He did it gradually with us, starting with the ‘dead man’s float’ and holding us up in the water while we learned the Australian crawl. Gene’s father used ‘tough love’ and Gene doesn’t make the same mistake.

And then there are those of us who just jumped right in, nobody had to throw us in.

My dad taught me to swim and no he didn’t throw me in. Now probably need some app to stare at instead. Sad

Yeah, the “throw them in” school of swim lessons. Often followed by the “grab him, he’s drowning!” school of rescue.

The John Wayne school of swimming.

Why I like the old ways. Didn’t raise a bunch of sensitive victims. Observe nature….what we consider cold and uncaring is actually crucial for survival. We’re headed in the wrong direction.

Gene breaking the cycle, how nice.

Is Gene in his mid 70’s ??

1959? That makes Gene’s dad about 70.

Someone ‘taught’ me to ski that way. I never forgot the terror. Because I didn’t know how to stop, I ran into a little kid. I was so mad.

Equally erroneous opposite ends of the same spectrum.

Miles was swimming on June 24, 2019.

had it happen to me never forgive

My dad did the same, threw me in a creek…I never did learn to swim. I can handle waist deep water, but any deeper and I start to hyperventilate. I live next to Lake Michigan, and rarely go to the beach.

My mother tried to teach me too young (age 4) …I remember the terror of walking down the steps of the adult pool, the water getting higher with each step…I am still terrified of water. Was forced to learn in high school gym classes but I do not enjoy swimming unless in shallow end and not too far from the edge. So yes, you can be scarred and scared.

My sister and I took to water like fish and never had to be forced. We were also given swimming lessons at a young age. I think I was four. We spent a lot of time and activities around water- pools, creeks, rivers, ocean, swimming, waterskiing, fishing, camping, etc… always around water, so it was important for us to be strong swimmers. Even today, snorkeling and scuba diving is a favorite pastime.

twice as a kid, once at the y and once at scout summer camp, had an instructor hold my head under to force me to swim. turns out chlorine burns my eyes and i can only swim with a mask. also it was twenty years later before i learned

swimming lessons were part of the program at summer camp and, man oh boy, we all thought that somebody had thrown ice cubes in the lake in early june…

despite my Daddy trying to teach me and 3 summers of lessons, I got to where I can swim about 20ft – I don’t go in pools that have deep ends, 4ft pools at the Y where I use to live, loved to exercise in water, very helpful for arthritis and fibro. Don’t have Y near where we retired and an indoor pool not in my budget unfortunately, thinking a spa would be helpful, about 98-99 degrees would be perfect :-)

When you think you can’t love Gene more. He’s such a fantastic father.

Three of my nieces had 6-months old babies they took to swimming classes (wearing baby swim-diapers). They all love the water and swim like fish now.

So, 1959 was 65 years ago, and Gene was probably the same age as Kyle there. Kyle has been established as 9 years old in the Santa storyline, so that mean Gene 74 years old.