Water Skiing

I remember the first time I went water skiing.   My parents, myself and my cousin, Kathy were on vacation at Lake of the Ozarks.  I don't remember my sister being around so I must have been about 7 years old and Kathy was a year older than me.  Dad rented a boat, which was a lot of fun but Kath & I wanted to water ski and since Dad and Mom never skied they had an instructor teach us.

Did you ever just know or have this sense in your mind that without any doubt you were going to love to do something without ever having tried it?  That's how I felt about water skiing (also snow skiing), which gave me great confidence and determination.  The ski instructor gave some shore training explaining exactly what to do, how to bend our legs, when to stand up, why we needed to keep our arms straight, etc.  I listened intently, almost like I was in a trance consuming every bit of information.

Now that we had the land instruction we were ready for the real thing.  I was the first one up and the instructor was in the boat now giving a few tips and words of encouragement.  We were told not to be discouraged if we didn't get up the 1st time or at all because it took coordination and balance, which may require practice.  I was a small kid so at age 7 my weight couldn't have been much more than 50 lbs, which made it easy to pull me out of the water as long as I could maintain my balance.  I can't give you a blow-by-blow account of first experience other than to say I got up on the first try, skied for what seemed like 20 minutes (in reality it was probably more like 5 minutes), didn't fall not even once and felt absolutely great.

My cousin was next and she was very competitive plus being a year older she always expected to be the tallest, fastest and best.  My cousin Kath was more uninhibited than me so that seem to lighten up the mood and always make vacations together (and there were many) more fun.  Kath was not a wimpy, prissy girl she was a spirited kid and always fun to be around.  Now I don't recall how well my cousin did on maiden water skiing voyage, I only remember that mine exceeded hers, which was a great feeling.

It was quite a few years before we got to go water skiing again until I was a teenager and my parents bought a boat and a lake lot.  It then became my passion and my sister (Rose) had also took great pleasure in the sport of water skiing.  We skied every chance we could and spent many hours on the water becoming very accomplished and confident skiers so much so that I water skied even with a cast on my arm. 

I had fractured a small born in my arm while playing sandlot football when I was age 20, since it was a small fracture it didn't bother me much so ignored it until I went through basic training (Army National Guard).  After I returned home from my training with a cast on my arm, a doctor told me I needed surgery to fix this old fracture that was not healing properly.  I had the surgery and was given a fiberglass cast, which was breathable and wouldn’t get damaged if it got wet.  I could take a shower with it, which was great even though the cotton sleeve got wet it would dry pretty quickly.  Hmm, so I thought if it’s ok to get the cast wet then why can’t I water ski, I know that’s not logical thinking but I was 22 years old at the time so my logic was influenced by my desires. 

Now I kind of believe that God gives you some undetermined number of free passes by looking out for the young when they make stupid or risky decisions and protecting them from injury.  The thing is no one knows how many of the free passes we each have so be careful.  Anyway, I skied many times that summer without injury and I’m sure I used up a number of those safety tickets but I am wiser now.  I have included a couple of pictures of myself skiing with my cast, but as they say don’t try this at home.

We introduced many friends and family members to skiing and all of them skied well and even though their enthusiasm may not have been the same as mine, we had tons of fun and enjoyed each others company.

Things I’ve learned about being a parent

Hum…………………………………………………………………………..…………………….thinking………………………………...patience…….………………………………………………………………………………..……….almost……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………got it.

Here’s a few words to describe how it feels to be a young parent, joy, terror, pride, protective, guilt, challenging, patience, fun, sadness, exhilaration, anger, happiness and much more.

As an older parent you grow more confident which changes your perspective on life so here are some examples of words to describe older parents, joy, terror, pride, protective, guilt, challenging, patience, fun, sadness, exhilaration, anger, happiness and much more.

No matter how you say it parenting is the ultimate high.  I would do it over in a nano second without question but I would most likely make just as many mistakes as before.

When I think about it I had it easy my kids were not dare-devils, they challenged me with what I would call normal problems.  I can’t imagine what Houdini’s parents said when he was a young boy and they caught him hanging upside down from the roof in a straight jacket. “Hey you didn’t eat your breakfast, you get down here right now”  “I told you that gutter was loose”  “Just wait ‘til you father gets home”.  I really feel for Mr. & Mrs. Houdini, of course things turned out pretty well (except for that last trick) but how were they to know. 

This brings up some questions. 

How can a parent be sensitivity when giving advice so you don’t appear judgmental or controlling?  I’m not sure, I’m a guy so sensitivity is not in my wheelhouse. Honesty and calmness is what comes to my mind.

At what age do you stop parenting, any age? Ideally when your children are grown but occasionally you will be pulled back through this parental vortex and provide unwanted advice even though you believe it may be worthy.  The thing is you’re always a parent, it’s a disease let’s call it, parentitis.  So let me appoligze now for anytime in the future that I give unwanted advice, it's my disease parentitis that drove me to do it.

My last thought is that I hope I can always remember what it’s like to be a parent so when the tables are turned and it becomes time for my kids to give me advice I will listen to it graciously before I automatically ignore it.  “Just Saying…..”

Catholic Grade School

Back in the 50’s corporal punishment was accepted in Catholic grade schools (and parents) so if you were punished by the teacher, you could be hit with a ruler, a wooden pointer or a hard-bound book really whatever was handy at the time.  Most of the teachers were nuns but there were also a few lay teachers and both seemed to rule with an iron fist.  Every kid gets in trouble now and then.  The only time I remember getting hit was by a lay teacher because I was talking and I got knocked out of my desk when I was hit with a book.  Holy crap, I’m really glad they hadn’t invented Tasers yet (Zap).  It was kind of an unwritten rule to not tell you parents if you got in trouble at school because you might get in more trouble at home.  My parents were never hitters so I didn’t worry about that but it was just a cautionary measure.  In school the rule was never “Innocent until proven Guilty” in fact it wasn’t even “Guilty until proven Innocent” they never tried to prove you innocent, it was just “You’re Guilty” if a teacher punished you and unlike today this was generally backed by the parents.

I don’t want to lead you to believe that school in the 50’s was a bad place we had fun times there as well it’s just the teachers were strict so we quickly learned the rules or ways around them.  We had recess, school picnics, church picnics, altar boy picnics and a few fun jobs throughout the day. 

One of the most fun jobs was to clean the erasers, so how could that be any fun, I’ll tell you.  Unlike today we had chalkboards (blackboards) and the teachers used chalk all day long, erasing the boards after each lesson or sometimes the students got to erase the boards.  So at the end of the day the erasers were filled with chalk dust and they needed to be cleaned.  The teacher would pick 2 kids (2 boys or 2 girls) I could be wrong but I don’t ever remember a boy and girl chosen together, any way they would take the erasers out to the fire escape to clean them outdoors so there wouldn’t be a mess inside.  The way we were instructed to clean the erasers was to hold one in each hand at arms length and bang them together and the white chalk would make a cloud of dust but as kids we found alternate methods that seemed to work just as well plus it was a lot more fun.  The chalk seemed to fly off the erasers just as well if you hit them on your buddy’s back, head or dark blue uniform pants but sometimes throwing them on the brick wall was fun because it left a nice chalk residue on the bricks.  It was always interesting to see the kids come back after cleaning the erasers because they sometimes looked like they were ghostly relatives of the long lost of Casper.  I’m sure the teachers were aware that they did not use the proper cleaning technique but they knew we were kids and the erasers were clean.

In the back of the classroom there was a cloakroom (coat room) which is where you hung your coats and kept your lunch and breakfast.  You took breakfast on those days you went to morning church, you weren’t allowed to eat breakfast before communion so your mother would pack a breakfast for you or you could buy something in the cafeteria.  Mimi (my wife) had an interesting story about her breakfast meals at school.  She liked cereal as many kids did so he mom gave her a bowl of cereal but instead of giving her a carton of milk she poured the milk on the cereal when she made it, really what’s that called cereal soup. That had to be worse than c-rations I had in the Army.  Mimi hated it, I mean who wouldn’t, but her mom never changed her routine, I guess it was easier for her.

Sometimes the teacher would punish you if you were being a disturbance to the class by making sit in the front corner of the classroom but sometimes these kids would make faces and cause the other kids to laugh.   So in some cases you may be sent back to sit in the cloakroom instead.  The thing is kids didn’t view the cloakroom as a punishment; it seemed more like a reward.

Kids being kids sometimes picked on others which is typical but it didn’t seem vicious like it appears today, you just learned to laugh it off which usually spoiled the fun of person taunting you.  Sometimes your friends would stick up for you and that usually squelched the harassment.  As I think back today I don’t recall any traumatic experiences that occurred which negatively affected my life while attending Catholic Grade School so my memories are pretty positive about my grade school experience.

Words

I find the way words/phrases are used, is both interesting and sometimes telling.  An apology when I was growing up was expressed differently and seemed more genuine.  Some people put much thought into an apology and therefore when it was expressed it was well received.  I’ve noticed in today’s society when someone has done something that justifies an apology they simply say “My Bad”.  Interestingly enough, that sounds more like a witty insult rather than an apology.  There is absolutely no thought connected with the “My Bad” apology.  I admit I have used that phrase on occasion but not as an apology just as a witty comment to a relative or friend intended as a joke or wisecrack.

I’ve also heard people are puzzled by someone’s use of the phrase “No Problem” as a response instead of “Your Welcome”.  For some reason this doesn’t bother me as much, but I have made a point to use “Your Welcome” more often since the phrase “No Problem” may bother others.

Recently I read where Beyonce is campaigning to ban the word “Bossy”.  She states “I’m not bossy I’m the boss”.  If you think about it that statement sounds kind of “Bossy” at least it does to me.  The truth is some people are shy, loud, quite, outgoing, energetic, negative, enthusiastic, and yes bossy.  There are many more words used to describe people and their personality traits and at times we can be described by more than one.  The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that “Bossy” is not necessarily a negative word like Beyonce seems to imply.  Maybe there is a time to be bossy so don’t be ashamed of it just don’t make it a pattern. 

New words/phrases come into existence daily and to me (older generation) some seem inappropriate just as over time some words, which were acceptable 30 or 40 years ago have become inappropriate now.  It can be difficult for some older people to understand why these words are no longer acceptable in today’s culture but it is also just difficult to understand why some of these new words are acceptable.  I’m guessing many people do not mean to be disrespectful of others by using these words.  Where and how we were brought up plays a big part in how we speak, so take this into consideration.

I look at banning words like banning books, it’s imposing on my personal rights.  So even though I don’t agree with the phrase “My Bad” as an acceptable apology, I don’t believe in banning words or phrases.  “Just Saying…..”