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Memory of Dad - 3
All of us kids spent every summer in and out of that brook that ran along one side of my parents property. The whole neighborhood had open access to that brook and on any given day there could be 8 or more kids in there splashing around and playing on the old tractor trailer tire tubes that we got from Sweeny's garage at the top of our street. I think back then they would hand them out for free...or at least I don't recall anyone paying for them. They just seemed to magically appear and we loved them. We never had more than two but it was possible to fit up to 4 kids on one tube so that was plenty. One very hot summer day we were all surprised when my father suddenly appeared standing on the bank...and he was wearing a BATHING SUIT! This was something we had never seen before...Dad in a bathing suit! He dropped his towel on the ground and executed a perfect dive straight into the deepest part of the brook.We were thrilled and shocked to see Dad do this..he'd never come swimming with us before and we didn't even know Dad could swim. As it turns out he was a damn good swimmer and even did a little showing off for us by standing on top of a metal bar to dive; the bar having been put in there long ago to help hold the embankment against floods. That was the one and only time I ever saw Dad swim and I never forgot it.
All of us kids spent every summer in and out of that brook that ran along one side of my parents property. The whole neighborhood had open access to that brook and on any given day there could be 8 or more kids in there splashing around and playing on the old tractor trailer tire tubes that we got from Sweeny's garage at the top of our street. I think back then they would hand them out for free...or at least I don't recall anyone paying for them. They just seemed to magically appear and we loved them. We never had more than two but it was possible to fit up to 4 kids on one tube so that was plenty. One very hot summer day we were all surprised when my father suddenly appeared standing on the bank...and he was wearing a BATHING SUIT! This was something we had never seen before...Dad in a bathing suit! He dropped his towel on the ground and executed a perfect dive straight into the deepest part of the brook.We were thrilled and shocked to see Dad do this..he'd never come swimming with us before and we didn't even know Dad could swim. As it turns out he was a damn good swimmer and even did a little showing off for us by standing on top of a metal bar to dive; the bar having been put in there long ago to help hold the embankment against floods. That was the one and only time I ever saw Dad swim and I never forgot it.
