My mom had a cigar box full of swimming medals she earned as a champion of three states, if you call Washington DC a state, along with Virginia and Maryland. Her mother kept loads of newspaper clippings of her wins during adolescence. People said she swam like a bullet. Then she went away from swimming, but she had confidence from those years in the pool.

I learned how to swim during summers at Tam High School in Mill Valley, and spent hours playing ‘tea party,’ diving off the high dive into twelve-feet, so deep I wanted to hold onto the side.

I decided to join the swim team in High School, after my sophomore Biology teacher showed the class two lung slices,  one who smoked, and a non-smoker, I was so grossed out I stopped smoking cigarettes (after six years at that point). Talk about bathing suits we wore, ordered to wear by our coaches, black tanks with straps in back and saggy butts. Five days a week workouts, for at least two hours. We shared lanes and did all the strokes, back, free, breast and butterfly. Kickboards were a big part, too, over and over. Continue reading “Swimming for life” »