44) Fun in the Pool

Kevin, Jonathan, Karen, Toni and Dominic in the Pool

We had had a pool built in our yard in 1976. When we built the pool the boys could both swim but I had never learnt as a child and really wanted to be able go into the water too. Dominic told me that if I was going to learn to swim I would have to put my face in the water. That was the thing I hated most but I decided that if the children could do it I should be able to do it too. So with Dominic’s help and encouragement I managed to put my head under the water. Then he told me that that was not good enough I now had to open my eyes, that was not so easy but I managed it eventually. Once I had conquered that I learnt to dog paddle and to be able to get across the length of the pool. I learnt to float on my back and was no longer so scared of drowning. I never became a good swimmer but it was a great achievement for me.

When we put the pool in it was the first one in the neighbourhood so it was very popular. It was always full of kids. We liked that, it was good to think that it was being well used and that all the children in the street enjoyed it but once I did have a bit of a problem. The house rules were that the children were all welcome to use the pool when ever they wanted to and if they were swimmers that was not a problem but those who were non swimmers I asked that one of their parents should be with them while they were in the pool. One day two little children arrived at the gate, clutching their towels and asking if they could swim. They were only very little, a girl of about five I would say and her little brother. I did not know who they were; I had never seen them before. I asked them if they could swim and they assured me that they could but they looked so small I was not happy about it and so I told them that they would have to ask their mother to come with them. They went off to “tell their Mum” and were back again in a short while saying that Mom was busy and that she said that they could swim. I was also busy and thought that if she wanted them to swim she should come and supervise them, so I told the poor kids that if they wanted to swim they must have a letter from their mother to say that they were swimmers and that they did not need supervision. Off they went again but were back soon to say that “Mum has not got any paper to write a note” and I thought that they must be making the whole thing up so said “No note, no swim”. Off they went again and I was feeling very sorry for them, they were only little and they just wanted to join in with the older children and have fun but I did not have time to watch them and it was not fair to make any of the children who were playing in the pool at the time responsible for them. The next day they were back again, this time they had a note that said something to the effect of “The children tell me that you will not allow them to swim unless you have a note from me allowing it. I give my permission but could you please watch them as they are non swimmers” This from a woman that I did not know from a bar of soap. I was furious but felt so sorry for the two little ones I sat by the pool for about half an hour and watched whiled they had a little game in the shallow end. Then I sent them home with a note for their dear mother saying that I was unable to find the time to supervise her children in the pool and that if she wanted them to swim in the future then she would have to come with them and look after them. I never saw them again and never found out where they came from. But apart from that one incident we had no problems with the pool, Jonny put a rope slide from a tree on one end of the pool to the another tree on the other end and it was a great success. They would all climb into the tree, slide to over the top of the pool and drop into the middle of the water, it was great fun. Some times there would be thirteen or fourteen children in the pool and of course it would get noisy and a bit on the rough side so I would go out, shout at them “Everybody Out”. We would count heads and make sure they were all present and correct, give them a bit of a lecture about rough stuff and then let them all back in again.

The naughtiest incident I remember around the pool was my own two boys. The pool as usual was full of children and Kevin Shaw from next door was there watching the others play. He had not been well that day and had spent most of the day in bed in fact he was still in his pyjamas and dressing gown. I don’t know what he was doing but it was something that annoyed Jonathan and Dominic. Jonathan threatened to throw Kevin into the pool if he did it again. Karen was being very protective of her little brother and told Jonathan that he could not throw Kevin in the pool as he was not well and his mother had told him he was not allowed into the water. I suppose Kevin felt that now that he had Karen’s support he just couldn’t lose so he pushed his luck once more and Jonathan true to his word threw him in pyjamas, dressing gown and all. I came out with a tray of cool drinks and biscuits and saw Kevin in the pool with his dressing gown billowing around him. He climbed out and ran home in tears. It was quite a while before I got to the bottom of the story. But for the most part they all got on well together.

In December 1976 my mother and my sister Adele came to visit us. Adele and Vic had just got divorced and for the first time in many years my Mom did not have anyone who needed nursing so they came to spend Christmas with us. As Adele was working she could only spend three weeks with us but Mom stayed for four. I think Jonny had a broken hand or something that meant he was off work for most of the time they were there. The terrorist war was really getting bad then so we were rather restricted as to where we could go but we did manage to get out of town a little. We went out to Lake MacIlwaine and visited the bird gardens and the reptile park though. We also went out to Mermaids Pool, a very nice picnic spot out on the Shamva Road. We went to the museum and the art gallery and to the Botanical gardens and the Balancing Rocks and we took Mom and Adele to visit all of our friends. It was not a madly exciting holiday for them but it was wonderful for me to see them again and just to be able to sit and chat and catch up with all the news.

During the last week of Mom’s visit, the week after Adele had gone home we had a thunderstorm. In fact I think it must have been the mother and father of all thunderstorms. We were all asleep but the huge noise woke me. The thunderclaps were so close together that they were just about continuous. The lightening lighting up the sky again and again. I was rather frightened, as I had not really enjoyed storms ever since our house in Chingola had been struck. Jonny was sleeping soundly through all the noise but I thought that the boys might be frightened so got up to check on them, they too were fast asleep so I looked in on my Mom and found her sitting at the window enjoying the storm as if it was a fireworks display. I asked if she was all right and she did admit that it was rather scary but she was enjoying it. I made a cup of tea for us and we sat at the window together and marvelled at the might of the storm. Storms in central Africa can be very ferocious but I don’t remember one before or since that was so spectacular. It seemed as if it was all around us, as though we were right in the centre of it and that it was trying to wipe us off the face of the earth but now that there were two of us we were not so scared and sat drinking tea for about an hour until the storm rolled slowly away into the distance. I think that this was the highlight of the visit for Mom; she had never seen a tropical African storm before. When we spoke about it in the morning Jonny, Jonathan and Dominic all said “What storm?”

My Mom, Jonny, Adele and the boys at Mermaids Pool