TheBanyanTree: The Curly-Q Slide

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Hot.  Humid.  Not a cloud in the sky.  We gathered up the grandsons and went
to the beach.



It's the beach where I learned how to swim.  This was back in the days
before swimming pools were common and there wasn't "baby swimming."  Kids
started swimming lessons at five years old.  Parents didn't hover over them.
Most kids got to lessons by riding their bikes to the beach.



I started in station 1, the station where I learned to put my head in the
water and blow bubbles.  It was all upward and onward from there.  Now I
swim laps at the club.



The beach is in a suburb of St. Paul.  It's a small lake surrounded by nice
homes, but none of them are ostentatious.  The beach is a wide berth of
clean sand surrounded by old trees, so a beach goer has a choice between
shade and sun.  The water is clean and we can see small sunfish swimming
happily around people’s feet.  There are two lifeguards.  And they’re
strict.  You do one thing wrong, like hang on the bobber lines that define
the swimming area, and they’ll yell at you through their bullhorns.  That’s
embarrassing.



Outside of the beach area is a long stretch of green grass and more old
trees following the shore line.  Picnic tables and grills are here, with
easy access to the beach.  My son, who is a summer baby, would have birthday
parties in this area.  It worked out so well; the adults could stay in the
picnic area and the boys would splash and clown around at the beach.



Then there’s the fishing pier.  It’s long and wooden and stretches out into
the lake.  The sunnies are plentiful, eagerly zipping towards any worm that’
s dropped into the water.  Lots of young hooks become addicted to fishing
for more elusive fish from this pier.



I would never have a weight problem if I was a young mother.  I must have
burned 1,000 calories just keeping up with the two and the four year old.  I
was in constant motion, because neither of them swims, so I was the official
lifeguard.  They’re not old enough to let them hang out on their own,
especially the two year old.  So I had to fight my slug-like nature and give
up lounging in my chair with a book stuck to face and follow the two of them
around as they explored the area.



I kicked the two year old off the merry-go-round, because he wouldn’t hang
on and kept sliding off as I pushed it.  He’s a pouter and just stood off a
few feet away from us with the most hurt look on his face.  Then he pointed
at the slide.



I don’t know how old this darn slide is, but it was probably there from time
I was born.  The wooden steps have been replaced many times.  When I was a
kid, they were painted blue.  Now they’re treated wood with no paint.  There
must be 20-30 steps leading up to the top, where a small child towers over
the beach.  The slide part is an old metal curly-q which was very novel when
I was a kid.



OK, Pooch, we’re going up there.  And we did.  The two year old led the way
with me close behind so he wouldn’t fall.  He’s the clumsiest kid in the
world.



We got to the top and I put Pooch on my lap and we zipped and curled and
slid down the slide, laughing all the way to the bottom.  Then back up the
stairs we went and did it again.



I was never allowed to go on that slide as a kid.  There it was, the
landmark of the beach, and I would look at it longingly, wanting like any
child to try out something so unusual.  But my mother wouldn’t let me,
because she thought my butt would get dirty from the slide.  My mother had a
horror of dirt and heaven help me if the butt of my swimming suit had dirt
from the slide on it and she couldn’t wash it out.  So fun was sacrificed
for clean.



But this is a new generation, a new type of mother, and darn it, we’re going
to go down that slide, dirty butts or not.  After Pooch and I slid down a
few times, I just had to look at my butt.  And yes, the jean shorts I was
wearing over my swimming suit were dirty.



So what?!



Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.skywaybpw.org

Skyway Business and Professional Women

Working women connecting.



http://www.bpwmn.org

Business and Professional Women of Minnesota



Bush is a "President who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, and
wants to plunge the world into a holocaust."

~Nelson Mandela



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