To Kathleen, wherever she is

Thank you for being fair to me during those years at the Downtown YMCA swimming pool in the midst of a lot of unfairness and pettiness.

It meant and still means a lot to me.   It gave me confidence in my ability to swim.  It was rewarding to take in your observations and to do my very best to incorporate them into my swimming.

I can still hear your calm, bell-like voice, "There's somebody [unannounced] now in the lane.  Circle swim."

You accepted my lopsided floundering in the pool as "swimming."

Thank you for making a positive contribution to my life.

No, most of the lifeguards were not bratty (the majority did not take initiative).  Just a coterie of them during an approximately one-year period (out of the 13 years I spent swimming at the downtown YMCA).  I had the misfortune of swimming while they were lifeguarding.

There were some truly wonderful people lifeguarding whose names go way back into the past ("You're a backstroker!"), whose names I've mentioned on yelp.com.  They are my true teachers.