it hai happened when I was ten or eleven year old. I decided to learn to swim. there was a pool at the T.M.K.O. in Yakima that offered exactly the opportunity. the Yakima river was treacherous. mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. but the T.M.K.O. pool was safe, it was only two or three feet deep at the shallow end ; and while it was nine feet deep at the other, the drop was gradual. I got a pair of water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk naked into it and show my skinny legs. but I subdued my pride and did it .
from the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when I was in it . this started when I was three or four years old and father took me to the beach in California. he and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him , yet the waves knocked me down and swept over me . I was buried in water . my brith was gone . I was frightened. father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at the overpowering force of the waves.