Swimming Tank

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.

Always remember to start in shallow water!

Rick