IN THE WATER

 

1956 - A rare picture of my mother in the water at Lake Tahoe with my dad.  Tahoe’s water is very cold and she almost never went in except maybe up to her ankles.  Even here she’s only up to her knees.  She did have her bathing cap on, though, so perhaps she actually went in swimming, but I don’t remember.

She did go swimming at Pinecrest Lake, however, which is cool, but not as cold as Tahoe.  Here, in 1953, she’s the legs climbing back onto her friends’ sailboat after letting it pull her through the water.

1956 – Yours truly at Santa Cruz, Calif. with my two younger sisters, waiting for the waves to catch me.  I don’t remember why I wasn’t in my swimsuit too?

1983 – My son and his two younger sisters by the ocean in Crescent City.  As you might suspect by the bare foot there, they had been playing in the waves, cold and foggy as it was.  We were visiting a friend who lived by the ocean and when the kids came up from splashing around in the water - the bottoms of their pants rather ‘damp’ - bless her heart, my friend threw them (the pants, not the kids) in her dryer. J

1971 – Backing up a bit, here’s my son playing in the North Fork of the Smith River which flowed behind our cabin.

He did have a pool in our yard, however, for those times it was hot but Mom didn’t feel like climbing down to the river.

By 2013 he had a slightly bigger pool with his own kids playing in it!  Rather than Chlorine, it was a salt-water pool.  Really nice.  The amount of salt used in a salt-water pool must not be that much because it didn’t sting the eyes.

As for bigger pools, how about San Francisco’s Fleishhacker Pool.  It was 1000 feet long by 150 feet wide – a true salt-water affair as the water was pumped in from and exchanged with water from the ocean which was right next door.  It opened in 1925 welcoming waders and swimmers for the better part of 46 years until it closed in 1971.

Now back to a normal size pool where we have one of my cousins and my two sisters relaxing during another cousin’s poolside wedding reception in 1963.  We were in southern California and as I recall, it was rather warm so the girls found a pretty good way to cool off.

1942 and I’m floating in the pool at Big Basin State Park

1977 and my daughters are floating in Bass Lake, Calif.

And in 1979 at Lake Tahoe, they’re doing what all little girls try doing:  handstands in the water.  Looks like older sis is doing a pretty good one.

But by 1988 they were back to floating devices – ready to check out the big waves barreling in toward the beach at Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe.  The big rolling waves happened every afternoon. 

We had started out on a lovely day to the other side of the lake from where we were camped.  We had brought a picnic lunch after which the girls took advantage of the waves to have fun.  All too soon, however, dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain accompanied by lightning & thunder, so we packed up quickly and left.

Driving back to camp we passed a popular mini golf course and the girls asked if we could stop so they could play a round.  By then, the rain had slowed to a kind of mist, but the lightning & thunder were still going on!  “So,” I said, “you want to go out there walking around in the open on wet cement with metal sticks in your hands in the middle of a lightning storm?”  After a moment’s thought they decided maybe they didn’t want to do that after all. J

1942 and I’m playing in the sprinkler in our backyard.

1977 and my son and daughters are playing in the sprinkler in our yard.  Some things never get old!

1984 – We’re all in the water at Lake Tahoe, the youngest one giving her Mom rabbit ears or whatever that’s supposed to be?  I’ve never known if there’s a meaning to it?  Everybody just did it.  Everyone still does! J

:-> 

La Nightingail