It’s almost impossible to grow up in northwest Louisiana without learning how to swim.  My Mother never did and remained afraid of drowning until the day she died.  Because of her inordinate fear of water, she made sure my Brother Jack and I had lessons when we were very young.  From that point on, we were rarely far from the water’s edge.

Jack and I quickly became excellent swimmers.  My favorite TV show was Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges and I always imagined that someday I would become a professional frog man like my hero Mike Nelson.  It cost a quarter to get into the Vivian Municipal Pool and my friends and I went almost every day.  Likening myself to Mike Nelson, the main character on Sea Hunt, I could swim the breadth of the pool underwater ten times without surfacing and I still remember visiting Marineland of the Pacific where many of the episodes were filmed.

I wish some movie producer would make a feature film of Sea Hunt.  I would go see it and I’m sure millions of other baby boomers would also attend.  Who would be the star?  How about Jeff Bridges?

Jack and I bought swim masks, fins and aqualungs as soon as we could afford them.  While neither of us ever made it to a South Pacific atoll it is still on my bucket list.

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