Oh the joys I recall of growing up in the outport. In those days of my childhood, summer was like a beautiful dream come true. School was finished, the days were warm, and you were free to enjoy the simple pastimes that whiled away those carefree days of the summer.

Swimming was a regular pastime during the warm days of summer and indeed the not-so-warm. For manys a time I can remember ascending from the cool pond waters a brilliant shade of iceberg blue.

How did we learn to swim back when there were no instructional classes, you wonder? You have heard the expression ‘a self-made man’? Well, all outharbour juveniles were self-made swimmers. Back then, learning to swim was like playing a hand of poker. It was all in using what you had and calling the bluff.

First you casually watched, a safe distance from the actual water, how those who were proficient in the sport mastered it, all the while you used your best poker face and pretended you know all too well how it was done. For, if your secret was discovered, look out, over the side you went. Then all too quickly, you’d be playing a game of Sink or Swim for the amusement of all those gathered at the old swimming hole that day.

Anyway, if you managed to keep your poker face and your secret intact, you were ready for the next important stage of the game. You entered the water demonstrating all the arm, body and leg movement of a gold medal swimmer preparing for an Olympic swim meet. Into the water you went deeper and deeper. The next trick of pretending to know what you were doing came when you lay down in the water and kicked and splashed your arms and legs about all with split-second timing. Then back on your feet before you sank!

Well, before you knew it, you had lots of knowing smiles gathered around you. Each one giving you pointers. You know, by the end of the week you were swimming out to that old maker rock in the pond where those gathered who knew how to swim!

Judith Ann Keough
Stouffville, ON