I am perfectly at home in the water. I grew up swimming, like a tuna. Our city had a great big pool and we lived in it in the summer. I took lessons all the way to "advanced life saving" because my mother grew up not knowing how to swim and she wanted to make sure her kids could do it.
Cut to Florida, mid 70's.
My mom was sitting in the pool, in the shallow end on the steps so as not to 1) drown, or 2) mess up her newly-set hair. Brian and I were goofing around and bumped her, and she plopped under water. For some reason, instead of panicking and immediately helping her up, we both just started laughing. I guess dunking incidents seem way funnier if you can swim. Anyhow, it all turned out ok, we didn't let mom drown. But I think the event traumatized her for a while. Between that spill and the fact that we had just gone to see the then-new movie "Jaws", it's amazing that she ever went near the water again.
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