Late last Saturday night and Sunday, I felt more aches and pains in my muscles than usual. I didn’t have to think very hard to decide what the cause would be for feeling that way. The reason: I went swimming last Saturday.

I don’t go swimming very often. It’s been months since I was in the water exerting any effort. The exertion and effort it takes to tell someone to turn the jets on while sitting in a hot tub at a motel doesn’t count for much.

On Saturday, at the Gunnison Swimming Pool, I exerted myself. I did the breast stroke, the side stroke, the back stroke, the American crawl (but not the Australian crawl). I dog paddled and I tread water. I played a version of basketball. I played catch with a football. I swung from a rope. I attempted multiple climbs on a climbing wall. All in the pool.

Why did I do all of this uncharacteristic, strenuous “Aquamanlike” activity in the pool? The easy answer: to impress people!

I wanted to impress our weekend family visitors. My oldest son, his wife and 7-year old boy were with us. I was most anxious to impress the grandson. I think the rest of the crew, especially my wife and daughter in law (spectators out on the deck), were impressed just by the fact that I put on a swimsuit and got into the water.

To my knowledge, we have three indoor, open to the public, swimming pools in Sanpete County: at the Activities Center at Snow College in Ephraim; the Mt. Pleasant Aquatics Center; and the Gunnison Swimming Pool. (There are, of course, other seasonal outdoor pools)

We learned Saturday that the pool in Gunnison is now closed for making improvements as of Monday, Feb. 26th. One of the employees said that it should re-open sometime in April.

I feel like that there are two types of people when it comes to swimming. I could be wrong, but see what you think.

The first type is the “I love swimming” group. These are the ones who love swimming for exercise, fun, mental health benefits and other reasons that I don’t have a clue about.

These people get up early and swim laps. These people go to water aerobics classes. They play games in the water and can’t get enough of it. Some of these people float on their backs for long periods of time in a “return to the womb” spiritual connection thing (maybe?).

The attitude of the second group of swimming people has a different sort of thinking. I’ll go swimming if it’s convenient and if the water temperature is to my liking. I’ll get in the water if my body and swimming suit are “suitable” at the moment. And, I might get in the water if there’s someone around who I’d like to impress.

I think you know which group I kind of lean towards personally. This may go back to some early incidents in my life that affected my attitude toward swimming.

One of my earliest memories of swimming as a young kid was with a group of boys in a farm irrigation pond. Long story short, I didn’t know how to swim and got out of my depth. I started panicking and flailing around and seriously thought I was a goner.

The other boys were oblivious to me, except for a second’ish (I don’t know my genealogy too well) cousin Glade Ogden. He rescued me and got me to a floating log where I thanked him and my lucky stars. I thought to myself, “This is fun?”

Being in the Boy Scouts made me face my fears of water and swimming. I lived in Richfield. In the winter, we had to make the drive to Ephraim, the closest indoor pool. That pool doesn’t exist now. It was a cloudy, steamy place.

Sometimes it was tough to see across the pool, even with my thick glasses on. That was where I passed off my early scout rank advancements. My thought was, I think, that I needed to impress my fellow Scouts and leaders and not embarrass myself. At that point, it wasn’t because it was much fun.

Fast forward to now. Progress! I can enjoy myself in the water and not worry about drowning the whole time.

My wife and I made sure that our kids had swimming lessons. I think lessons are important. In some countries, like in Scandinavia, for example, swimming lessons are part of school curricula.

I sometimes tell people that my dad taught me how to swim by throwing me in the canal. And, that once I got out of the gunny sack, I did pretty well. It’s a half-decent joke and usually gets a smile, if people know what a gunny sack is.

I also like to re-tell a little story involving Flo Mitchell, who’s from the Greater Chester Metroplex in Sanpete. At the Mitchell family pool hundreds of Sanpete kids got their swimming lessons, including one of ours. Flo was out there in her swimsuit getting those kids trained in all those water skills they needed.

I was ushering one night at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti when I ran into Flo who was hosting some of her family and guests at the pageant. I greeted her with a big hello and said, “Flo, it’s good to see you, but I almost didn’t recognize you with your clothes on.”

I loved the looks on the faces of her guests. We still get a good laugh over that episode when I run into Flo in Wal-Mart or somewhere.

So, to finish this off, if you haven’t thought of it lately, consider taking a swim in Sanpete. It’s great that it’s possible to swim here locally year-round. It’s another “something to do” thing here in a place where some think that there’s “nothing to do.” Get splashing! — Merrill

P.S. Some of you may be wondering the difference between the American Crawl and the Australian Crawl front swimming methods. It’s mainly the kick action. American Crawl is a constant “flutter kick,” while Australian is a coordinated kick from the knee at the same time as the opposite arm action. Clear? Probably not. Look it up.

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