{"id":2098,"date":"2012-06-26T09:04:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T15:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:07","slug":"doug-is-all-wet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/doug-is-all-wet\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Is All Wet"},"content":{"rendered":"

On \u201cstaycation\u201d this week with our friends, Denny and Joanie. \u00a0To celebrate our shared anniversaries and Denny\u2019s birthday in late June, the four of us usually head off on lengthy sojourns by car or plane to some distant destination. This year, though..in part because Linda\u2019s mom isn\u2019t doing so hot\u00a0 but mostly as our way of giving the finger to big oil companies, we decided to stay closer to home. That brings us to Lake Madison where we chose to again accept the long standing generous\u00a0offer by Denny and Joanie\u2019s daughter and son-in-law to take up residence at their cabin for a few days. Karen and Paul Rensch are rarely here during the week so we have a run of the place which includes long chats sitting out on the deck or the dock during soft warm summer evenings with a fishing line always in the water just in case something swims by and grabs the bait; a bullhead and a\u00a0 small Walleye have been the only takers so far. There was a time when the girls would slip into\u00a0 bathing suits and paddle around in the water but these days they\u2019re more inclined..and just as\u00a0\u00a0content\u2026to dangle their toes in the tepid green water. I think Denny would like to go swimming but can\u2019t find anybody to take the plunge with him; certainly not me. I haven\u2019t removed my shirt\u00a0 in public for decades and don\u2019t ever intend to either thank you very much.<\/p>\n

\"doug\u00a0I suppose if somebody was drowning I\u2019d dive in to save them..afterall, I am an official Red Cross Advanced Lifesaver and have a patch like this tucked away somewhere to prove it.<\/p>\n

I recently came across a photograph from when I was a kid of me and a bunch of other youngsters\u00a0at the curb in front of the Volga Auditorium waiting for the school bus to pick us all up for the short ride to the Brookings Pool for our weekly Red Cross sponsored swim safety course.<\/p>\n

\"doug<\/p>\n

That\u2019s me in the flowery shirt whistling and charging toward the bus which had just rounded the corner. Funny, I can still name just about every kid in the photo which was taken by a professional photographer and printed in the Volga Tribune. I used to love those lessons; in part because swimming came easy to me and also I was at the age of self awakening and bewilderment; unable to quite figure out why I so looked forward to seeing those bronze skinned South Dakota State College women lifeguards who served as our swim instructors. Those lessons were pretty early in the morning and the water was usually chilly. It didn\u2019t take long for me to get used to it but I can still see some of the purple-lipped\u00a0skinnier kids standing along the edge, wrapped in a towel\u00a0shaking uncontrollably refusing to be coaxed back into the water. (They never got a patch.) \u00a0A few of us breezed through the preliminaries; \u00a0like ducking your head underwater and using a board to help keep you afloat as you kicked and paddled your way forward. In no time a few of us were doing the crawl stroke back and forth across the pool without assistance which qualified us to swim in the deep end where the diving boards were. I loved the swimming pool and would either ride my bike or hitchhike to Brookings whenever I could muster up enough lawn mowing money to cover the cost of admission.<\/p>\n

\"dougIt\u2019s been over fifty five years but I can still smell the powerful aroma of chlorine that hit my nose upon entering the brick building which led to the water. After paying the quarter, customers were issued a wire locker basket to put street clothes in. Each numbered basket had a big metal diaper pin with the corresponding number that you\u2019d affix to your suit.<\/p>\n

\"dougThe bottom of the pool used to be littered with them leading to chaos when a kid who\u2019d lost his tried to reclaim his pants and shoes. I believe it was rule number three that said everybody had to take a shower before entering the pool. I never could figure out the apparent redundancy until some kids showed up looking as if it was the first shower they\u2019d had in months. Even then I remember being grateful that their grime and sweat was going down the shower drain and not floating amongst the general population like a big oil slick. We were expected to take a turn under the spout after swimming too. I suppose it was to wash the chemicals off but, in my case, I learned to appreciate the benefit of a cold shower after beholding those lovely college girls perched atop their lifeguard stands all day.<\/p>\n

I sure do miss those days at the Brookings Pool when..even though I was a chubby kid.. modesty didn\u2019t prevent me from those wonderful watery experiences.<\/p>\n

Heck, maybe, just for old times sake, \u00a0I\u2019ll sneak out of the cabin late tonight and go skinny dipping in the lake. I\u2019ll probably need a shower afterwards to wash off the algae but at my age, there\u2019s no reason the water needs to be cold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On \u201cstaycation\u201d this week with our friends, Denny and Joanie. \u00a0To celebrate our shared anniversaries and Denny\u2019s birthday in late June, the four of us usually head off on lengthy sojourns by car or plane to some distant destination. This year, though..in part because Linda\u2019s mom isn\u2019t doing so hot\u00a0 but mostly as our way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}