PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 58 - Summer Swims

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 58

Pawpaw loves Bryson, Connor and Archer!

Summer Swims

   When Dad was working, we had some fun times as a family and some good vacations. We went to Atwood Lake and Berlin Lake to swim and picnic. These were happy times and everyone from the extended family came together for pot-luck picnics and cookouts at the lakes. It was fantastic spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Mc, Mom and Dad, all the aunts and uncles and kids. We’d swim, eat, fish and play together from early morning until after dark. Good times. Good memories.

   One summer, Dad must have been working because Mom and Dad bought us season passes to the Menegay’s swimming pool in Louisville, Ohio. It had two high diving boards, a low diving board and a 20 foot high slide that was great fun. My sister Susie was too young to go but Skip and Sherry thankfully brought me along with them. We would bicycle the two miles to the pool or take a shortcut through the woods which cut the trip down to one mile but made us pass through hungry woods mosquitoes.

   In the years we couldn’t afford a swim membership, we’d swim in the creek that ran through the woods behind our home and under a train bridge. We’d jump off the railroad bridge into the creek. Someone hung a thick rope from a tree and we’d swing out over the creek and drop in, laughing, screaming, and cheering each other on the whole time. When the trains came, we’d sit under the bridge until they passed. You could feel the ground vibrate and hear the metallic roar of the thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk as the train passed overhead. As we played, we’d eat the wild strawberries, apples and raspberries that grew in the woods.

   At other times when it was just me or just me and my guy classmates, we’d skinnydip in the creek. After all, why take off your dry clothes, then put on other dry clothes just to get them all wet? We’d strip off our clothes and leave them on the bank of the creek or hanging in the trees. Then we’d cannonball in nude and natural. It was innocent fun that seemed to bond us even more than usual.