
We all learned to swim early.
We swam in the water troughs and a stock tank that was about two and a half feet by ten feet in diameter. The stock tank here is the one I learned to swim in, and so did some of our kids. Here is Richard, Courtney and Joan with Kathleen supervising. It was enough to learn the dog paddle.
Our summer day trips to Corona Del Mar gave us good training as well. We would follow Dad out to the buoys. I think it was about one hundred yards out. We always took a raft with us on those family swims just incase one of us got tired.
(for moms)
When the spring of my eight grade year came around Tommy Fernandes had a swimming party. I think the whole class showed up. It was a great place to have a party. A big built in pool and patio, and a pool table to boot. I was good friends with Tommy and had swam there a lot over the years. I think everyone in our class could swim except Zachary Batista. He would not get out of the shallow end of the pool and had a fear of just putting his head under the water. With some coaxing from all the boys Zachary finally walked over to the deep end. The pool had a diving board so the deep end had to be eight or nine feet.
The way I remember it was that I was in the pool and everyone was telling him to just jump in and dog paddle like he was doing in the shallow end. You could tell he really didn’t want to do that and that he was really afraid of the water. I don’t remember if he actually jumped in or was pushed, but here he came.

I was the only one in the water near him so he grabbed me and tried to climb out using my sinking body for footing.. With the water being so deep there I just went down and as I did he was clawing and grabbing me in such a way that was being held under the water. Now I started to get scared because I was running out of air and the panic inside me was coming on like never before around water. Was I going to drown right there in Tommie’s pool? It seemed like an eternity then I finally pushed myself down further into the depths and away from Zachary. I guess some of the other guys had helped Zachary out because when I finally got up enough to suck in that life giving air he was already out of the pool. I was really tired. I don’t know if I kept him from drowning or not, but I was sure happy to be swimming out of the pool myself. I taught all of our kids to swim, and often thought of that.
Always remember to start in shallow water!
Rick