Michael Phelps on the Tonight Show

[Anonymoose]

Young women in the audience are screaming and squealing as if he were a pop star. Every. single. thing. he says – they scream and squeal.

I think it’s funny – takes me back.

Well, maybe it will get them all out there swimming and getting in shape.

And hopefully their boyfriends and husbands. And their kids. He just said the second highest(?) cause of death among kids under 14 was drowning and that that’s gotta stop.

When I was 14 (and under) all my friends and I could swim. Were we “privileged”? It’s not like any of us had ponies.

Weird.

[Foxtrot_s]

For some reason, numbers suggest that blacks do not get their children into swim lessons. Perhaps he can help change that. “Phelps helps” or something like that?

[Anonymoose]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8826512]
For some reason, numbers suggest that blacks do not get their children into swim lessons. Perhaps he can help change that. “Phelps helps” or something like that?[/QUOTE]

Cool – I like that slogan. You should copyright it and tweet it to him!

Oops – shoot – somebody’s already using it – in Canada.

[Gestalt]

I know it’s the thing to criticize success, but he has had to really work hard to get where he is today. I think he will be a great influence on the kids.

And I remember my friends and I screaming all through the first concert we ever went to.
Three Dog Night. :lol:

(My observation isn’t directed at the above posters!)

[JanM]

He already works with getting swimming instruction available to kids, as a part of his foundation. The sad truth is that many places didn’t have public pools and swim lessons where I grew up. You had to join a community pool, and the membership wasn’t much, but it was beyond the money many families could afford.

I grew up in Northern Virginia, and it was a discrimination ploy. Our neighborhoods weren’t integrated, and therefore, you couldn’t join the pool unless you lived inside the boundaries. The big public pools attached to high schools were build in the late 70’s, and then all of the kids learned to swim at school, and could go swimming in the summer. It was absolutely to exclude blacks.

I learned to swim when we were in California, because the Red Cross sponsored private pool owners who could teach, and were willing to have classes in their pools. Everyone was welcome, and the schools were totally integrated also, and there were big recreation centers too.

I wonder how many little kids died because they couldn’t swim then? I guess we’ll never know, but it’s awful.

[Rackonteur]

@JanM;8827166

He already works with getting swimming instruction available to kids, as a part of his foundation. The sad truth is that many places didn’t have public pools and swim lessons where I grew up. You had to join a community pool, and the membership wasn’t much, but it was beyond the money many families could afford.

I grew up in Northern Virginia, and it was a discrimination ploy. Our neighborhoods weren’t integrated, and therefore, you couldn’t join the pool unless you lived inside the boundaries. The big public pools attached to high schools were build in the late 70’s, and then all of the kids learned to swim at school, and could go swimming in the summer. It was absolutely to exclude blacks.

What about the Y? They had pools – theirs were the first indoor pools I ever saw, when I was little.

We had public pools in the city I grew up in, but I don’t remember seeing any black kids in them. I guess they were segregated back then like the public schools.

I don’t remember – I was a little kid.

Even now, I have never heard of a public pool being attached to a high school. Some have their own football fields with stands, but I’ve never heard of one having a pool anywhere near it.

But as for the tragedy of kids drowning, what parent takes their child to a pool/lake/the ocean/whatever and lets the child go in the water without first teaching them how to swim? That’s horrible.

But this thread explains why I see so many older kids wearing those arm inflatable things.

I learned how to swim before I started school. I was lucky, my mom was a good swimmer and loved the water and taught me to swim. But, like Michael Phelps, I didn’t like putting my head underwater at first. Swimming underwater came along when I was older, about 6, I think?

[JanM]

Rack-I lived in Northern Virginia, and there were no public pools until the community pools were built next to the high schools. YMCA didn’t really exist where I lived, and the only pools were the neighborhood ones, that were developed by people in the neighborhood.

It was a time of segregation, and even though schools were sort of segregated, there were many other organizations that were only white or black. Actually, my high school was almost all white, and the year after the congressman’s last child graduated, there was a different boundary, and the school was much more reflective of the local community, and it wasn’t a coincidence that it happened on that schedule.

[GoodTimes]

I grew up on the Great Lakes (Canada), so while our town didn’t and still doesn’t have a pool everyone takes swimming lessons at the beaches, learns to jump off a dock, etc.
Most of the swimming deaths in Ontario seem to involve immigrants who haven’t learned to swim yet, falling through the ice, or are alcohol related.

I now live in Alberta and it’s completely different. Most of the people I work with either don’t know how to swim or have only ever swam in a pool. There are very few lakes in this province so swimming isn’t much of a priority. I convinced one of them to at least put her children in swimming lessons at the Y.

[sophie]

Swimming lessons were an integral part of the curriculum in my small town public school when I was a kid.
But I learned before I was even in Kindergarten, during our summer vacation, because my dad insisted on it and we were lucky to have a great public (i.e, dirt cheap) outdoor pool in the town where my grand-parents lived. We’d spend all morning there. It had been built in a field and people would lie on grass, have picnics, etc. It was huge, 4 different pools spread out on that field, the shallow wading pool for babies, an olympic-size pool for the serious swimmers, a diving pool, a pool where kids learned to swim…I still remember it fondly, after all these years. And I even found a pic of it! Memories, memories!
http://images.delcampe.com/img_large/auction/000/149/887/172_001.jpg

[Anonymoose]

sophie, what a beautiful place! Beautiful scenery, and swimming pools!

The pool I grew up swimming in had the diving section, 50-meter lanes, recreational section, and “baby pool” all in the same body of water, with ropes separating each section (but of course ropes can be swum under).

Every single time I saw Michael Phelps or one of the other swimmers sitting on the ropes in Rio or sliding over them, something in me cringed and lifeguards’ whistles and voices echoed in my brain – “GET OFF THE ROPE!” :lol:

I have looked several times for an online picture of my old pool but have never found one. It’s still there, just for some reason no member has ever posted a pic of it. I have some in my photo album (including one of one of my childhood favorite lifeguards!) but none of the whole pool.

[IronwoodFarm]

[QUOTE=JanM;8829545]
Rack-I lived in Northern Virginia, and there were no public pools until the community pools were built next to the high schools. YMCA didn’t really exist where I lived, and the only pools were the neighborhood ones, that were developed by people in the neighborhood.

It was a time of segregation, and even though schools were sort of segregated, there were many other organizations that were only white or black. Actually, my high school was almost all white, and the year after the congressman’s last child graduated, there was a different boundary, and the school was much more reflective of the local community, and it wasn’t a coincidence that it happened on that schedule.[/QUOTE]

I grew up in Northern VA starting in 1959 and my experience was very different from yours. First of all there were public pools – Lake Fairfax comes to mind. Second, there were plenty of community pools particularly in Reston, where ANYONE who lived there could use the pools and tennis courts. Reston was a diverse community. I was not aware of any high school having a pool; that’s news to me and my high school most certainly didn’t have one.

I am not saying that your experience was invalid or that defacto segregation did not exist, just that it was not universal. I went to school with African Americans. I went to public pools as my parents did not have the money to join the local country club and there were no neighborhood pools. I grew up at a time where the western part of the county was quite rural and there were more cows around than people.

And I think it is entirely possible we had these same experiences at the same time.

[JanM]

I lived in Arlington. It was another world, about the 19th century when I lived there. Other schools in Arlington were much more integrated, but I went where many kids were politically connected, and there were special rules for the rich ones. There’s a reason I wouldn’t ever go to any reunions with the rich, snotty, entitled people that were about half of my high school. The neighborhood pools were started by people who wanted their kids to have privileges, and were only for community residents in their neighborhood. Their were waiting lists for many years, and then you had to pay a fee to join, plus a yearly fee. I understand once the public pools were opened, that the private pools went from waiting lists, to lacking in members.

The church my mother dragged us to was for rich snobs too, and the first non-white member was a missionary for the church (he and his family were only visiting). It was years after I left that there was a black family, who were very well off, that became members. I understand the church is much more community oriented, and with great programs for all, but it certainly wasn’t that way into the mid-1980s.

[poltroon]

Nearest public pool to me is a half hour away and honestly it’s fairly expensive to use. They offer swimming lessons - half hour at a time - at $20 a lesson. Open public access to the pool is $5 a day. At that rate, it adds up pretty fast before you actually learn to swim, let alone get to any stage where you’d be a candidate for competitive swimming. And, if you’re not an adult who is a competent swimmer, you wouldn’t feel comfortable taking your kids swimming to just an open access day.

My daughter has had some swimming lessons but I do not consider her a competent swimmer. The activation energy required to get her to a place where she could swim was just too large.

Where I grew up, it was common for people to have backyard pools, and that’s where I learned to swim. But, you had to be fairly wealthy, or have wealthy friends, for that to be an option.

[GoodTimes]

[QUOTE=poltroon;8830738]
Nearest public pool to me is a half hour away and honestly it’s fairly expensive to use. They offer swimming lessons - half hour at a time - at $20 a lesson. Open public access to the pool is $5 a day. At that rate, it adds up pretty fast before you actually learn to swim, let alone get to any stage where you’d be a candidate for competitive swimming. And, if you’re not an adult who is a competent swimmer, you wouldn’t feel comfortable taking your kids swimming to just an open access day.

My daughter has had some swimming lessons but I do not consider her a competent swimmer. The activation energy required to get her to a place where she could swim was just too large.

Where I grew up, it was common for people to have backyard pools, and that’s where I learned to swim. But, you had to be fairly wealthy, or have wealthy friends, for that to be an option.[/QUOTE]

Those rates seem very reasonable to me. No one gets competitive in any sport for free, and at $5 a day to just get comfortable in the water and learn the doggy paddle seems pretty good.
Pools are expensive to build, maintain, and staff, more comparable to a hockey arena than a soccer field.

[IronwoodFarm]

[QUOTE=JanM;8830735]
I lived in Arlington…

The church my mother dragged us to was for rich snobs too, and the first non-white member was a missionary for the church (he and his family were only visiting). It was years after I left that there was a black family, who were very well off, that became members. I understand the church is much more community oriented, and with great programs for all, but it certainly wasn’t that way into the mid-1980s.[/QUOTE]

Again, I can only say that Arlington was very different from the western side of Fairfax County. Having lived in Northern Virginia for most of the 1980’s, I don’t have the same recollection as an adult either. I am not saying it wasn’t valid for you, just that your experience was not valid for many other areas of Northern Virginia. I fully admit that Arlington had no interest to me as keeping a horse there was extremely difficult.

[sophie]

Thanks, Anonymoose! Not bad for a “town pool”, eh?!!

My take on this topic is that learning to swim is a life saving skill. Swimming lessons should be mandatory and part of the basic school curriculum, should be a priority over learning to play soccer, hockey, baseball and the like…teach those kids how to swim!

[JanM]

Yes, North Arlington is a different world, and was a center for those who liked their society isolated, and not integrated to any real degree. I think that was the real reason my parents bought there, and still live there. Another reason it’s the last place on earth I would ever live again, too many bad memories.

When I went to college, swimming was a mandatory course, unless you passed a rather high level swimming test. However, before I graduated they dropped the requirement.

[Foxtrot_s]

Canadian Red Cross keeps detailed statistics of water related deaths, the whys, and hows.

Every child should have the chance to go to swimming and water safety courses.

And parents. The number of deaths from negligence - faulty latches on gates, not wearing life jackets, alcohol, as atrocious.

Tragedies occur, but avoidable incidents is the majority.

Not surprisingly, the most people who do not swim are largely in the north - too damn cold, I guess, but the hazards are there, too.

[JanM]

I’ve seen too many pools with either poor fences, or no fences. People don’t think it will happen to their child I guess.

[poltroon]

[QUOTE=GoodTimes;8831161]
Those rates seem very reasonable to me. No one gets competitive in any sport for free, and at $5 a day to just get comfortable in the water and learn the doggy paddle seems pretty good.
Pools are expensive to build, maintain, and staff, more comparable to a hockey arena than a soccer field.[/QUOTE]

Maybe. But lots of families just don’t have it, and that’s per person per session. And that’s a reason kids don’t do it, especially kids from families of color, especially kids whose families don’t already swim. The park is free. Even competitive soccer is much cheaper - $30 for the whole season, and you can get that waived if you’re low income.

Money can get very tight when kids are toddlers, especially because the family is likely either paying for day care or is surviving on one income.

It was too rich for my blood at the time.