It’s Week 21 of the MFRW Author 52-week Blog Challenge, and the prompt is “A childhood memory.”

I have a few vivid memories, the ones that had some meaning to my life, and it took me a while to pick one.

When I was in sixth grade, we moved to Miami, Florida and lived there for nine months, including most of the summer. As you can imagine the heat was unbearable, esp. since our little bungalow wasn’t air-conditioned. But some friends had a pool, so we spent as much time as possible there.

One afternoon I was in the pool by myself, floating at the deep end. The adults were playing cards at a table near the shallow end. Suddenly I heard a splash from the other end of the pool, and looked over. Now, my eyesight has never been good–I’m quite near-sighted–so all I could see was a round yellow blob bouncing up and down. I was bored and curious, so I decided to see what that thing in the pool was.

As I got closer, I realized it was the baby!

At that point I rushed over and pulled her out. Thankfully, I was in time. She was sputtering and coughing, but still breathing. I remember climbing out of the pool carrying the little one and indignantly informing the adults of what had happened. They were supposed to be watching her!

After that, her folks took the little one, who was not yet two, for swimming lessons, and she took to the water like a little mermaid. I’m glad she had no traumatic memories of nearly drowning in the pool

But not every pool accident has a happy ending, and now that summer is icumen in, it’s time for all of us to be reminded of pool safety, esp. where the little ones are involved.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

Linda

Click on the linky list below to see more #MFRWAuthor childhood memories.