#52 Ancestors Week 41 - "Sports"

I have to toot my own horn this week with the "Sports" prompt. Hopefully one day my great grand children will find this post amusing! I was a serious athlete as a child. From age 8 until I was a teenager I swam every day of my life. Practices every morning and afternoon and a swim meet every weekend. While unearthing some storage boxes a couple of years ago, I found some old newspaper clippings and other mementos that my mom saved all these years. I'm really glad she did, because I have only vague memories of any of the meets. They all blend into each other over the years. Growing up in a (then) small town, local sports were covered in our newspaper, The Laurel Leader. That's me taking off in the backstroke competition above when I was either 13 or 14.

Home Meet

Swimmers are weird. Ask any swimmer and they will agree. I chalk it up to spending a large portion of your life submerged. For 4 hours every day you are in sensory deprivation hearing nothing but the sounds of splashing water and your own breathing. Even though it is very much a team sport, your training is done in a very solitary way. I loved everything about it with the exception of red eyes and chlorinated hair all the time. I have reconnected with some old swimmer pals from back in the day on social media which has been great. It's helped me remember some fun times I had long forgotten. I will keep this brief, because I'm not really an ancestor yet. 😁 Here are some pictures for my future family historians. (click photo to enlarge)

#Winning (lol)

The annual relays meet in Cheverly, Md. was always 

good fun filled with a lot of team spirit.

That hair, though.

Honoured to have been one of the first inductees

into our Swim Team Hall of Fame 20 years

after competing

It was always a thrill to receive the Presidential

Physical Fitness Award. There used to be badges, too.