------------------------Learning to Swim--------------------
It was winter all along. I hadn’t mentioned how the weather was all this time bacause I focussed on other areas. Yet, it was winter and especially by the sea, it was doubly colder than our initial place. We always had to wear overcoats the moment we went outside. Winter was gradually gone by the wind. Spring settled in and people in the complex started to test out the sea waters by dipping their feet in. The sea water scared me to death, and my heart went throbbing the moment an inch of sea water touched my feet when I went near the beach, not knowing swimming.
Still yet summer arrived. More and more people got into swimsuits and swam in the sea. We might not get another opportunity like this. So Dad asked Mom to sew swim trunks for him and swimsuits for the rest of us. Yes mom was pretty good at sewing anything, and also knitting with wool anything. It was her passion which was going to last for years ahead.
Pretty hot summer days were passing by. The trunks and swimsuits were ready. Dad chose a day for the dive. The day arrived. We, the girls wore loose midis; yet inside we were wearing swimsuits. Dad wore his perfectly fitting trunks. We preferred to wear hats on our heads as the sun shone directly on our heads.
I had never worn a swimsuit before and I was only 12, the eldest in the family. I wondered if it would be possible for me to expose my swimsuit in public. But it was Dad’s order. That meant nobody could protest. So our troupe went down the stairs to the beach and found a comfortable place to sit in the sand at first along with other familiar people. My sisters took off their midis and were soon attempting to wet their feet in the water. My Dad was already swimming and so was my Mom. But I was still sitting on the beach, debating what to do. Taking off my midi seemed like the most embarrassing and impossible thing to do right there and then.
Dad came back to take a rest for a while, and soon he saw the poor me, and one strong glare from him at me did the trick. If my sisters could do it and so could I. So I took off my midi right then, not thinking much at all. I soon approached the sea water smartly and wetting my feet. Yes, the worst was over, and the best was yet to come.
That was the first day near the beach. We had only one swimming ring and my sisters and I shared the ring on several days in a row and learned to float. Soon we could float on the water without the ring.
Many more days of attempts of swimming with and without the ring led us to our final target. I was the first to actually learn to swim without the ring. Seeing me, my sisters caught up with me enthusiastically. And our whole family bunch could swim now. It felt great.
My shyness disappeared completely and my sisters and I, along with Mom and Dad, swam and swam in the sea without going too far into the sea just to be on the safe side.
We noticed the burning sun rays and salt of the sea darkened our skin to such depths that our Dad and Mom decided we had had it enough and we had better stay out of reach of the sea.
The Russians were pretty perplexed why we stopped going to the beach. We gave varying answers because it would be difficult to explain to them because the sun and sea only tanned them and they liked it but we didn’t. So that was it. The end of all enjoyment of the sea. But even so, the sea was going to be a blessing for us in many other ways until the end of our time near the sea.