Learning to Swim

Nancy asked for me to tell the story of how I learned to swim.

I think we have to start in about 1927 when the steam shovel that I had previously mentioned dug the irrigation canal through the edge of our property, transporting water from Lake Cle Elum down to the lower valley and all of the farming areas to make the land more productive. It was no benefit to us, as we were above the ditch. The water was distributed to smaller canals which served for us as places to play and learn to swim. The water was not much higher than knee or waist deep for us kids. The intriguing part about this was that my dad told a story about when he was back in Lokve Croatia, where he was born, there was a lake where he learned to swim. He told me about how he learned to swim, pretending to swim with one foot on the bottom making sure he wasn't going to sink. We begged him to swim for us but he didn't have a suit. Even my mother asked him to swim for us. She said, "Wear a pair of my bloomers!" The pant legs were down to the knees and up to the waist.

There was a particular spot where the bank of the canal was caved in and served as a sort of entrance to the beach, although it was still steep. We sat on the bank near him, and he would put in his hands and splash up his elbows, and slowly inch in, splashing to get used to it - he didn't like to jump right in. He got in up to his waist and the bloomers were then wet and when he'd step back out of the water, well, you could definitely tell that he was male! We all kidded him to get back in the water saying, "Come on Daddy, it's not that bad!" He'd say, "Easy for you to say! You're not in there!" That water was really cold, right out of the lake, which is run off from mountain snow. Pretty soon he'd dip down real quick and stand back up and finally he pushed off, like a big battle ship and swoosh! he'd be swimming like a frog. He actually learned to swim by watching frogs. Back in Lokve, their 'logo' for the town was a frog. Lokve is in a low spot and there are lots of marshy places and the frogs croak all the time. So, Daddy was out there swimming exactly like a frog, lunging across the water.

He made it to the other side of the canal, which was maybe 70 feet across and he would stand on the bank and go upstream, because fighting the current would be pretty tough. He'd go back up to where he started, lunge off the bank, and swim back over. That was enough for him! Ma would cover him up so the rest of us wouldn't have to look at his wet bloomers!

This was one of the good times with my mother and father and entire family.

I used to go back to that spot, teaching myself how to swim using his methods. I'd start with my foot on the ground and eventually lift it to see if I could float. I'll be darned if all of a sudden, I knew how to swim! As long as I was moving my arms and legs I could swim. I wasn't a powerful swimmer, but I could do it. I watched other guys jump off the bridge into the water and swim with overhand strokes, since they were very strong swimmers. I actually would jump off the bridge and swim back and forth, too. I wasn't as good of a swimmer, but I could do it!

During a summer, I probably swam ever day. Only instead of bloomers, I wore cut off overall shorts! Later in life, when I was in the army, I was able to swim out into a river and save a guy from drowning.

As an aside, I used to take my dog down there, throwing a stick for him, and he'd bring it back. One time he was chained up on the other side of the canal, and he saw me on the other side and ran and jumped right in and tried to swim over to me. That dog almost drowned, but I jumped in a grabbed him.

The photo above is of my parents, Anna and Tony Mohar, on their 25th Anniversary.