“But Mommy, where are the sides?” I asked my mother. I was standing at the edge of the swimming pool I had ever seen and I could not see the sides. This water was so clear and sparkly. And endless.
Having learned to swim in an Olympic-size pool where the water was clear and chlorinated, I could keep my head above water before I had learned to walk. And, being the water baby that I was, I had experience playing at the beach and was good at fending off ankle-high waves off of Florida’s east coast.
My mother replied, “Honey, there are no sides. This is the ocean in the Bahamas.” I was 3 years old and did not know what a “Bahama” was, but I learned that this ocean had water just like a swimming pool but that it did not have edges just like a pool. And ooooh, that smell! Frequently smothered in Coppertone sun tan location, I would then begin to forever equate the smell of Coppertone to a beach.
This was going to be fun. I liked it.
