Team Gray!

A few years ago, Curtis treated me to a day of my favorite things for my birthday. For me, the highlight of the day was going swimming at the Y. That was the spark that lit the flame of the best workout routine I’ve ever had. As soon as I can, I will get back into the routine of swimming twice a week.

So, Sunday, even though we stayed home from church because of icy roads, I took Yanni, Xay, Mani, and Joy swimming at Western. By 3 o’clock, the freezing rain had turned to just rain,and the ice was slush. I was very grateful.

While the Y free-swim is like $20 for a family, we got into Western’s pool for $7–and they have a high dive!

I had thought I might miss out on some of the thrill of swimming by bring the kids, but it was more fun with them. I had forgotten why I had wanted them to learn to swim in the first place. So I could swim.

I remember the first time I tried to go swimming as a Mommy, way back in ’92. I took Yanni to the pool in her cute little bubble suit, and proceeded to be terrified that she would drown the whole time. I realized that I’d never have a moment’s peace in the water as long as she couldn’t swim.

So I set out to get her swimming. We signed up for baby and me classes at the Y when she was 2. That’s when I found out that they don’t teach swimming in those classes. They also don’t believe that children are capable of learning to swim before the age of 3. I say, tell that to the baby in our class that was swimming all over the pool. And this whole family of kids from our townhouse community that was swimming from the age of 1.

Angie, the mother of these three swimming kids told me that she did the throw ‘em and let ‘em swim method. She would blow in the baby’s mouth, forcing him to hold his breath, and then dunk him under the water. She blew over Xay’s mouth, and he didn’t mind being dunked at 3 months or so. She also gave him her little baby innertube and seat, and he happily tooled around the pool independently all summer. Xay has never been scared of the water. Angie was on to something! But I was too chicken to do everything her way, and I created a fear in Ayanna that took years to break.

I took her to the Kik pool when she was 5, the youngest age they took students at that time. I figured if anybody could teach her to swim, they could. That’s where I learned to swim. Now I realize that it depends on the staff and the student’s readiness. It took a whole summer session for Yanni to even put her head in the water. Maybe two years later she was jumping off the diving board, and furiously treading water in the 12 foot area.

Xay started swim lessons at 3, and was busy talking and challenging his teacher to races immediately. Yanni could swim now, but didn’t know any strokes.

When I signed them up for swim team in ’01, Xay was in a slightly lower level than Yanni. They learned the four competitive strokes and have been good swimmers ever since. This is the first year since the fall of ’01 that they haven’t been on the swim team. We took a break for Yasha, and haven’t gone back yet. Yanni, who hated the rigors of 3-5 day a week swim practice, was raring to go swimming on my birthday. She was talking about wanting to be lifeguard, much to my surprise. She who hates swimming because of her hair, or whatever.

Xay was real cool about it, but he loved it too. He was fetching everyone’s goggles when they dropped them in the pool, even Yanni’s in the deep end. He came down to the shallow end with me and the little girls and helped me with my flip turns, he timed my lengths, and even whipped me soundly in a mini-race. I was too tired to really continue racing him. Yanni spent most of her time going off the board, especially the high dive. I called her down to watch the girls so I could go off the high dive. Just. one. time. You know, because I’m 40.

Yanni warned me to not think about it too much–just jump. I prayed as I climbed up. I walked way out to the end of that board. I looked down. I couldn’t do it. I looked back to the ladder. It was steep. I better just jump. But, no. I thought I’d rather risk climbing back down. Funny how I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed to do that. I just didn’t want to slip and fall climbing back down.

I rejoined Imani and Joy, as they got more an more comfortable in the water. At first, both of them insisted on swimming with noodles. Western’s pool is 4 feet deep in the shallow end. But soon, Imani was swimming without the noodle, and Joy was venturing out without it, and going back to swim with it alternately. She was constantly jumping in the water.

I asked them if they wanted to go off the diving board. They both wanted to. (They have had swimming lessons at Yanni and Xay’s swim club, and Imani is about 3/4 through the program; Joy is 1/4 way through). They had to take a swimming test in order to go off the board. Joy wasn’t ready, and I thought Imani would refuse this. After all, she had resisted my trying to get her to really swim in the shallow end. For the test, she had to swim the width of the (Olympic size) pool in the deep end. Imani insisted on taking the test. That was almost a length in a regular size pool, a distance I know she can swim, but she usually stops mid-way to rest. She swam freestyle across the pool. I thought for sure she was holding on to the bulkhead partway through. Then, Imani got out of the pool, and the lifeguard gave her a waterproof paper armband. She passed the test! Yay, Mani!

Then, she was too scared to go off the board. It did look intimidating to a little person not yet 4 feet tall. The lifeguard let her go off the block first. I told Imani that if she went off the diving board, I’d go off the high dive. By this point, Joy was hankering to get back in the pool, so I left Imani with Yanni and headed back to the shallow water with Joy.

Xay and I played a little volleyball while Joy sat on two noodles like a hobby horse. It was almost time to go, and I could see that Imani had conquered her fear of the diving board. I had to make good on my promise. Xay went back to the deep end. I called Yanni back over to watch Joy so I could go off the high dive, 5 minutes before the pool closed.

Xay was behind me, offering the moral support I desired. I took Yanni’s advice. I wouldn’t think about it, I would just jump. So I prayed and climbed that tall, steep, slippery ladder. I walked the length of the long, rough board. I don’t think I even jumped up. Just off. And, before I knew it, I was in the water, and I didn’t go too deep. When I came up, I was like, “I did it!” My goggles were fogged up, so I just swam in the direction of the side of the pool. Xay was all nonchalant. I knew Yanni would be cheering for me, and she tells me that she was. I was shaking when I got out of the pool, and I was shaking for the remainder of the time we splashed around in the shallow end.

We closed that pool. Got our $7 worth, and some!

I’m sitting around here wondering what anyone has to say on my birthday. And it dawned on me! It’s MY birthday! Why don’t I write something to commemorate my birthday?

And what a birthday. I’m sure the title gave it away. I’m 40 today.

It’s weird how I’ve been reminiscing lately. I’ve been to youtube looking up my favorite tv shows of old. The only one I didn’t find was Villa Allegra. I did find that some people on the web remember that show, but I couldn’t find any clips of it. So, if anyone out there has any clips of this adorable Spanish/English show, I’d appreciate it.

But I found Vegetable Soup. And it was trippy, to say the least. I can’t believe I loved that show. And vintage Sesame Street definitely took me back. I probably watched the first episode of Sesame Street, and every episode thereafter until I was like 12. I remember watching the first episode of Electric Company. It had Bill Cosby doing something on a mirror with shaving cream.

Anissa says that Electric Company was evil. I didn’t remember it that way, but watching skits on Youtube, I see something kind of warped about that show. All that hippy trippy stuff–right on and out of sight! I never knew anyone that actually talked like that in real life. It was like the 60s and 70s were a show that was performed for us. I never heard anyone say ‘groovy’ except people on the Brady Bunch, for example.

We wore polyester, and keds, or whatever–buster browns, but most folks I saw were not loopy. Curtis remembers the tv telling him ‘this is how black people should act,’ and he thinking that although that didn’t line up with real life, he would try it.

It was an illusion.

So, I’m going back through TV that has influenced me in my life, and finding out why I see the world so messed up sometimes. I used to LOVE the Monkees. That show is perfect for Youtube. Most of the musical numbers from the Monkees is on there. And I see how stupid the Monkees really was. My mother would use the word, vapid.

I just don’t have the time in the day to look up every show I ever watched, because at some point in my life, I watched TV every hour of the day. I knew some people that scheduled their college classes around their soap operas. I didn’t go that far. I didn’t even have a TV in my room Freshman year. But I would go and spend the night at someone’s house that did have a TV on Thursdays. Cosby Show, hello!

I have looked up Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker, as well. Violent! And this was like my milk growing up.

I have had a self-righteous kind of air about our childhood television. How we were so much better off than kids today, because we couldn’t buy any merchandise related to any TV show in the 70s. How Jimmy Carter and them protected us from that crass commercialism that is so prevalent today. How back in my day, you couldn’t watch TV all night long. How we would sit as a family and watch (garbage) sit-coms like Happy Days and Good Times. How time ticked away as we watched Little House on the Prairie and Fantasy Island as a family.

I marvel at what little else we accomplished as a family. We went on vacation, and we watched TV. Daddy was adamant about limiting TV, at least having just two televisions; one in the living room, and one in the kitchen. Mommy was quite addicted, although she was proud to be free from the snare of soap operas.

Then, Mommy got a TV in her sewing room. And Zeke and I were forbidden to watch it. But, we started sneaking up there to watch Gimme a Break, a show that Mommy refused to watch. It started innocently enough, just the one show!

But before we knew it, we all started watching TV separately in our family. Then, Zeke convinced Daddy to get him a black and white TV for his Atari. (or did Zeke buy it himself?) He only kept that for a year or so, before upgrading to a color set. Zeke even built a TV stand in shop at school.

Daddy had moved the living room TV to the family room in the basement, and Mommy refused to go down there to watch, preferring her sewing room. Zeke had his room, and I could either watch with him, or in the kitchen. Four people, four TV’s.

Daddy had lost that battle. It was kind of like a battle for our souls, because as I look back over 40 years of life, television shows were a major preoccupation.

I have traveled. I have played music competitions, done well in college, gotten two degrees, and given birth to 6 children. I am blessed. But I have major regrets about the place television has occupied in my life. Don’t even let me get started on music. . .

With four girls, we have lots of sisters in the house. But these two have a special bond.

And at 22 months apart, they are closer in age than any of the others as well.

Happy Love Thursday