Going Back

This weekend I'm attending yet another basketball tournament.  This time it's in New Haven, CT.  One of the games will be held Yale.  I used to swim there everyday as a kid with the Men's Swim Team (before Yale went co-ed - I guess that kind of dates me a bit).  Anyway, it's been 45 years since I've been there.  I'll never forget my first experience with the coach.  He told everyone to get bands and tie up their legs.  Then to hop in and do a warmup of 100 laps.  I thought he was joking . . . he wasn't.  And this was a 50 meter pool.  I think I cried in the water the whole time!  But it got worse.  At the end (this was at the deep end), I untied my band and it fell down to the bottom of the pool.  When the coach saw this he yelled at me to go get it.  I tried but my ears made it impossible to get down there.  Then he screamed at me when he saw I swam back up without it.  I still have to smile when my mother yelled at the coach to stop making me try to get the band.  He then threw her out of the pool area and she was never allowed in again.  Needless to say, on the way home I told my mother I wanted to quit.  She told me I had to give it one more try.  I don't know how I got through it, but I did.  I ended up practicing with them for probably 2 more years until the coach passed away.  Things were so different back then.  To this day, I have no idea how or why 6 kids, ages 11 - 15 were practicing with this team.  It's funny what feelings and memories come up when I think of that time.  I remember the guys on the team used to talk about the clubs they would go to.  It was the whole beatnik era.  Does that bring back memories to anyone?  Jack Kerouac perhaps?  Here's to going back!  Have a great weekend!

"I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.”  -Jack Kerouac