WETue 6/10/14 Future Bugs

WETue 6/10/14 Future Bugs

This is for Pam Brittain, who wants to know what bugs or bugged me, but this stuff might always bug me. There is so much, that I’ve taken a few things from my childhood and will tell you about those, instead, okay? Good.
I mean, I have a list right now, but I’m not going to complain about that stuff.

These still bug me. Will do so in the future, too.

Things That Bug Me

• Wasps (the black ones that keep stinging, forever)
  • Bikini’s tops around my neck, disappearing bottoms
  • Swimming without chlorine, in a pool
  • Algae
  • Almost lies and lies
  • Fish that bump into me

When I was a kid, not that I lied or anything, I was actually disgustingly honest, we had an old 24′ round pool that was getting rusty. My hair was getting lighter, as I dyed it after my dad went to work, figured he’d never notice. Oops. I didn’t – not tell the truth, as he didn’t ask me – he asked my mother, why my hair was “that much” lighter.

She told him that he must be putting too much chlorine in the pool, and I just never corrected it, but, he never mentioned it to me. He believed her and stopped using it almost completely, figuring she was right.

I let it go, but the stupid pool was “always” green. We swam in it anyway, who really cares about algae when you’re a kid? It also never seemed necessary to see the bottom. Who cared, we were hot!

So, somebody lied, but it wasn’t me. Sort of. At the same time, wasps, the ones that can and do sting forever-without-losing their stingers moved into the uprights, the pool was old and I guess it seemed like a good place for them to be, to them.

Second lie. Mom told us that if we stuck ourselves underwater when they started stinging us (they did, repeatedly, every single time we went in the thing) that the wasps would let go of us and it would be okay.

Do not ever believe that one! We did. The next time we were in the pool, a bunch of us were getting stung over and over again – I repeated what my mom had said, we all ducked underwater. It ticked them off! Did they let go? No way, but they did sting us more and harder. They also out-lasted us all.

Rather than drown, or get stung to death, whichever came first, we came up for air, half the neighborhood and me, with stings all over us – all I have to say to that, is that it’s a good thing none of us were allergic to the stings, but we were all a mess!

They kept stinging after we came up, so they really out-lasted us! Time to get them off – *swat*, and if we couldn’t get them ourselves, we swatted each other, got the hell out of that pool and stayed out!

Another good thing, because not long after that, due to all the rust, it collapsed, so I’m actually glad none of us were in it.

We were all middle school age, (The age where parents cover their eyes and think, “Oh no, what now?”), you know what I mean. So, it was also just about the time one of us could get someone’s parent to drop us all off at what’s now known as a “Park and Pavillion with swimming”, but it’s not.

It’s really a reservoir with run off from somewhere, but if we got there, we stayed all day and were able to meet the boyfriends or girlfriends (depending on who we were really with, if you were a guy or girl) that we swore we didn’t have.

That was our lie. We called it the “Res” back then and it was a good place for us anyways. I still call it the “Res” and darned if everyone doesn’t know just where I mean, too.

There were no bees there, but there was a raft to swim out to, showers and a cool diving board to jump off of and that’s back when I could actually dive, but I sunk like a rock and also did front and back-flips off the thing, but………..usually my bikini top, or bottom or both would mostly fall off. I held my nose, so that kinda spoiled the effect, but kept my other hand firmly on one part of the stupid bikini or the other and never, like some other girls did, lost them.

It’s gotta be really embarrassing to have to have lifeguard row out to get someone with a huge towel, because if you lost your bathing suit, you “never” found it. Mine? Only ended up around my neck and that’s also how I found out just how long I could hold my breath – as long as it took to get it back on!

There was also a slide and tennis courts, that we kinda played, but I never could hit the stupid ball. I loved the slide, though; yeah, the same thing happened, bikini top around my neck. Don’t ask where the bottoms were, as that’s bad enough, but I did hold my breath for a very long time, many times!

Did I mention there were no wasps? There were fish in there, that were always bumping us. And I was a swimming-lesson drop out, I “knew” how to swim when I was much younger so I refused to take lessons, after a couple of them, though I would go hang out till the poor people that “had to” finished.

I learned how to swim, way back, because if I wanted to go in the “big pool” I had to. Nobody taught me, I was told to “get in and just do it”, so at first I swam underwater, coming up for air or to grab the side of the pool, but I learned.

***Our son does not remember learning how to swim, as he was taught by me, without holding his nose, long before he could walk and he walked at eleven months old, it’s very instinctive as a baby.

Copyright M. Nicholson 2014