Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2002
By David E. Walling, '36
I'd like to tell you about a fun experience I had in early December 2001, when I joined the Lawrentian women and men swimmers in Bradenton and Venice, Florida. They had traveled there for a nine-day training and pleasure outing, and Andrea Powers, '94, associate director of alumni relations, who is also an assistant swimming coach, suggested that I drive from my home in Beverly Hills, Florida, to join them for a day. I quickly agreed.
They were swimming on December 17, two days after they flew into Tampa, at an Olympic-sized 50-meter pool in Bradenton, so I drove "Snow White," my white convertible, putting the top down just before noon arrival to pose as a sporty Floridian.
All 39 of them had been warned of my appearance and so greeted me warmly in the 75-degree temperature. They were swimming warm-up laps before a relay meet with Kalamazoo and De Pauw. I was on the '37-'38 Lawrence swim team, which was most primitive, so I never dared swim warm-up laps, or nothing would be left for the real thing, but these swimmers each did several 50-meter laps smoothly and expertly. After all, they were the Midwest Conference champs two years ago and swim thousands of laps each season to perfect their strokes and endurance.
I volunteered to be cheerleader without pom-poms, but actually I spent most of the time talking to those awaiting their next events. I was most impressed with their friendliness, swimming abilities, and career ambitions.
I convulsed them with tales of '37-'38 swimming, where we practiced about five to ten percent of what they do. And how the coach sent me in to secure one point for third place in the 200-yard freestyle, for which I was unprepared, since usually I flailed through the 50-yard. Milwaukee State Teachers had only one entry, as did another Lawrentian, so I nailed third place with a record for the slowest 200-yard freestyle ever recorded in intercollegiate competition.
That day, the meet was not for winning, just competitive practice; no points were tabulated, just individual times.
Next we all went to Sweet Tomatoes, an all-you-can-eat cafeteria. Three rode with me in "Snow White." As it was now 5:00 p.m. with little breakfast and no lunch for all of them, that restaurant's profits took a huge beating.
Then we drove to their motel in Venice, where I had rented a room. Most of them walked about 100 yards to the Gulf of Mexico beach, where they tossed a football or a Frisbee, looked for seashells, lay in the sand, or -- guess what -- swam in the ocean. After awhile, I went to my room, read the paper, listened to country music on TV, and relaxed. Due to the strain of watching them swim in the meet, I soon drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Andrea knocked at my door at 7:00 a.m. as the troops were gathering for a two- to three-hour practice. Head Coach Kurt Kirner decided to have all of them group around "Snow White" and me for multiple camera shots, and we said "goodbyes" and "good lucks." Andrea treated me to breakfast; then I hit the road back home.
If you ever get the chance to spend some time with current Lawrentians, be sure to do so. They are a fine bunch of women and men, not kids. Incidentally, the Lawrence swim team grade-point average is impressive as well.