Scouts Honor

As a child, I spent my summers at Kino Pool. The Funk kids were a staple at this city facility. We had a "family ticket", which basically meant that our dad was a city employee and we had an all-access pass to the coolest place in Mesa. A typical summer day would find any one of the Funk kids at swim team practice in the morning, then swim lessons between 9 and 11, a quick trip home

for lunch, followed by an afternoon swim with the optional return visit in the evening with Dad. We usually walked home from the pool and inevitably one of us had gone to the pool WITHOUT SHOES, so we would throw our towels in front of us as far as we could, then run to them for relief from the scorching sidewalk. It makes me smile just to think about it.

Today I am a confident swimmer because of all those hours spent at Kino. I am comfortable in the water. I love the smell of chlorine and the rubber scent of a swimming cap. I know how to tread water easily. And I know how to teach and pass off the Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges. (It's the same stuff I learned in the dive tank at Kino 30 years ago.)

Now I am teaching my own Scouts. These are the neighborhood boys in the midst of passing off the "submerged in clothing" requirement. I can happily say 14 boys now know how to survive if they were ever tossed overboard on a cruise ship while wearing long sleeved button up dress shirts, jeans and skater shoes. This was great fun. I'll do it again every year. Send your Scouts my way in 2010. I am ready to make them lifesavers.

p/s If we were lucky enough to get a ride home, it usually involved piling 10 kids in the back of the Sorenson's pick up, saving our feet from the the dreaded heat path/callous builder hop-scotch.