Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Smell of Chlorine

I love high school swim meets. I do. I loved them when I was in them, and now I love going to them.

I love the excitement and I love the energy and I love the swimmers' bodies.

Especially this kid's. The kid with the yellow on the side of his suit.

My fabulous godson Elliott, whose team was at New London High for an away meet. I mean, look at that back, wouldja?
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And look at that form . . .

I love the high drama.

I love cheering madly during the races.

I love the goofiness of high school kids. High school swimming kids.
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I love the final handshake.

It's very sportsmanlike.

I love the final cheer for the other team.

Have I mentioned the goofiness of high school kids?

High school kids are like a separate, foreign, highly-chlorinated, exceedingly goofy species to me.

They frighten me, and yet they draw me in. That's why I love them.

But what I love most about high school swim meets? Besides, of course, seeing my friend Jonny Mitchell?

Is hanging in the stands with my girl Nancy.

11 comments:

Colleen said...

The kid talking to your fabulous godson in the first picture looks astonishingly like my fabulous brother.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Interesting, Col, no? Uncle Bill said the same thing.

Aunt Ellie

Logical Libby said...

You can bring wine to swim meets? Man, I would with my husband to sports things if they had wine there...

Mom C said...

He does Coll, but I like the kid in the blue bathing cap, he cracks me up...love, gram

Me, You, or Ellie said...

I have many things to say. Seven, if you want precise details:

1. I need sunglasses to look at all that white skin

2. The kid in the middle of the top photo, the one you zoomed in on later? made me choke on my coffee. What is he trying to say with that body language?

3. I was going to say that the blond guy in the purple button down looks out of place. I was going to say that he belongs here, among the Californians. But then I enlarged the photo and it turns out that blond California dude is someone’s mom. So, nevermind about that.

4. I do not remember boys in my high school looking like that. Beside the facts that they sported less hair, they also showed a lot more thigh. Pasty and white, I would imagine.

5. Are long sleeved black shirts and jeans the uniform for spectators?

6. Thinking of high school swim team makes me viscerally remember the feeling of trying not to yawn underwater. And I can smell the locker room.

7. Sachems?

Dandy said...

I want a swimmers body!

That one kid was cracking me up with his very expressive posture :)

Me, You, or Ellie said...

I can almost smell the chlorine, and hear the strange, loud acoustics. Indoor pools are a world of their own, aren't they? Much like highschool kids are a species of their own.

Beth

Captain Dumbass said...

I had a bunch of swimmer friends in high school. They were crazy. Must have been all the chlorine.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Of course you can bring wine to swimmeets, Libby! Well, of course *I* can. I can bring wine wherever I want, and I do. You don't expect me to sit in the stands without it do you?

And Jacquie (aka Ms. Peeker), long sleeved black shirts and jeans is not only the uniform for spectators, it is the uniform for January in Connecticut.

Ellie

NucMEd is Hot said...

could he be the next Michael Phelps??? hmmmmm

current;ly wearing a black shirt and jeans in PA said...

Just know that Beth and I graduated from the same high school as Michael Phelps...a few years before he did, and we DID NOT have a swim team or a pool. (bet we would have won a lot during his years there if we had one)
Sad but true. So we missed out seeing our lanky peers in swimwear :)