The End Of The Deep End - The swimming pool as you know it is no more (MORFORD)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/9/03 | Mark Morford (the man Freepers LOVE to HATE!)

[AnAmericanMother]

drownproofing is a very useful skill.

It was invented by Fred Lanoue, a coach at Ga. Tech, back in the 30s some time. All Ga. Tech students had to take and pass the drownproofing course. My husband loved it. The final test was to have your ankles tied together and your wrists tied behind your back, do a front flip into the pool, swim all the way to the other end and back, and then stay afloat for 20 minutes. If you can do that, you can do anything.

Fred died before I was born, but my grandfather (also a Tech man) knew him, and Fred taught my mother to swim.

[wazoo1031]

As children my sister and I were competetive swimmers and we knew the perils of the water. Guess what? we made it to adulthood just fine! (I even wore your stars-n-stripes swimsuit when I started as one of the "Saratoga Superstars"). The Fort Myer's pool was the best! Whenever we had swim meets there, we would stay after and jump off the high dive into the DEEP END! DUH! It's there for a reason. The demise of the deep is the result of the demise of modern day parental responsibility and greedy litigation. It has nothing to do with concern for people's safety. You teach your kids to dive into the water and to swim. Ummm, it's not like you cannot see the bottom of the pool when you dive or jump into it. RESPONSIBILITY for one's own actions has evaporated (well, not evaporated, it's just morphed into money to line lawyer's pockets). The most frightening thing about the deep end however, was THE FLOATING "BABY RUTH"! Everybody out of the deep end, there is a kid nugget in the pool!

[JennysCool]

Couldn't agree more, CCM.

[Bobby777]

I think Barney Frank is behind this whole thing.

please, don't let him be behind anything ...

[wazoo1031]

Tee Hee...