Learning to swim

was a rite of passage in my kittenhood. 

My earliest memory of "swimming" is of being carried into the water at the beach near my paternal grandparents home. It was just a few minutes walk away and we spent a lot of time on the beach in the summer. A lot of that time was spent in the water.  The adults in our lives knew the importance of water safety and education.

Grandpa swam all year round at the time. He "exercised" by going for an early morning swim, summer and winter, rain or shine. It could be blowing a gale or frosty but Grandpa went into the water. He walked there and back from his home before breakfast - and was still at work in his tailoring business by eight in the morning. He went on doing it for as long as he could, finally "retiring" at the age of eighty-six. Only failing eyesight caused him to stop. 

In the last two years of his life he lived in a hospital which had a few beds for very elderly people. It was on the sea front. He still went swimming from late spring to early autumn. His eyesight was failing to the point where he could not see the traffic to cross the road so one of the staff would see him across the road.  There was always someone local to see him across the road when he had been in the water. And yes, he still swam strongly. Nobody was concerned he would not make it out of the water safely.

When I was very young Grandpa wore a black wool bathing suit with a white webbing belt. It was old-fashioned even then. Grandma had darned it in places. I can remember the feel of it against my cheek as he carried me. My own bathing suit was of red wool at the time. I can remember it felt scratchy and heavy when it was wet. Later I had a cotton one with a great deal of shirring elastic in it to hold it up. I have seen all of them, on different occasions, in our Maritime Museum. Am I really such an old cat now?

Grandpa taught me to "dog paddle" first - by the simple expedient of holding me in the water by the straps of my bathing suit and telling me what to do. It is what all children were first taught to do.

My next memory, which must have been at the end of the same summer was of being "dunked" by the Senior Cat. This time it was in the swimming holes left at the end of summer in the "river" not far from our home in a small country community. It was the beginning of term picnic for the school staff. Like his father the Senior Cat was determined that I would be as safe as I could be in the water. They went on to do the same thing for my brother.

When we returned to the city and lived a very short distance from our paternal grandparents Grandpa would arrive each morning over the summer holidays and take me and my brother down to the water. The swimming lessons were continued.  Grandpa was not a natural teacher like Grandma was but he showed us by example and taught us to respect the sea. He had grown up by it and had rowed boats, sailed them and more from a very young age. His father, a ship's pilot and maritime cartographer, made sure all his eleven children could swim almost as soon as they could walk. There is no room for complacency when you live so close to a busy port one side and sandy beaches on the other.

We kittens all went on to the summer swimming school lessons run by the Education Department. We achieved our "Beginner" certificate almost immediately. All it required was the ability to float and then "swim" twenty-yards through the water. Aware that this would not do much for our water safety Grandpa and the Senior Cat kept teaching and encouraging us. Even I, the clumsiest kitten of them all went on to my Intermediate and then Senior Certificate. I could float, I could do a clumsy "overarm" and "sidestroke" and I could "duck dive".  I doubt I could have saved myself but, more importantly, I knew my limitations and the dangers of risk taking in the water. I knew to avoid the undertow and to stay between the flags. My brother and I spent hours in the water.

It has been a while since I went into the water at the beach. We just haven't done that sort of thing for a while. I think I could still swim at least 100m. It might not be far enough but it might keep me afloat until help came. It is rather like riding a bicycle, a skill that is difficult to unlearn.  

I thought of all this as I listened to a news item saying that so many new arrivals in this country cannot swim. As most Downunderites live around the coast it is an important skill to have if they want to go anywhere near water. A day at the beach can all too easily turn into tragedy.