When our friends moved back to town from Virginia, they asked if we could keep their boats in our back yard.

As usual, I was apprehensive at first. I didn’t want my children to tear them up. But they were a sturdy canoe and kayak. There was nothing the kids could do to them. The next thing we asked was if we could go boating with them. They moved here in June. The whole summer stretched out in front of us.

And then it passed. And we never went out on those boats.

My daughter got to play with canoes today with her swim classes. She said how heavy the boat was and how she couldn’t push it very hard very fast. She cracked up her students when she tried.

I remember how canoeing was the easiest level of boating we could try at Girl Scout Camp. I always wondered about that, considering how easy it is to tip one of those things, and how hard it is to steer them. But they told me that the sailboat was the hardest, and durned if I’ve ever been in a sailboat!

Or a kayak, for that matter. Some of the children kayaked one Labor Day weekend when we’d been invited out to a friend’s lake house. I had a new baby and wasn’t prepared to do anything like that at the time. It looked like fun, though. I wonder how often we’ll take our friends up on their offer to canoe and kayak next summer?

A bittersweet image as fall descends.

Racism was proven in the Philadelphia case of the country club canceling its contract with the daycare.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission issued a finding of probable cause in the case of the Valley Club versus the Creative Steps Day Care Center.

The Valley Club’s own record of diversity, or rather the lack thereof was used against it in the finding. There are no black members of the Valley Club, nor has the club been reaching out to racially diversify its membership. Which is all fine and good except when they’re trying to defend themselves against racism charges.

The commission ordered monetary damages for humiliation and embarrassment and a civil penalty of not more than $50,000. The Valley Club has 30 days to appeal, which it plans to do.

Scheduled for November 12-15 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO, the conference will give practical solutions to the problem of encouraging diversity in swim clubs around the country.

Some clubs have made great strides in diversity, while others have done nothing.

The club in which my children used to swim is pretty diverse. There are Black, Asian, Hispanic and White kids in the club, as well as a diverse coaching staff. Recent pictures posted from various summer events show how much everybody enjoyed being on the team together.

I wonder if its head coach will attend the conference?

Here’s part of a race from my archives. My daughter started strong, and pushed hard, but didn’t quite pull out the victory. Now if the pool had been *that* much longer. . .

Columnist Bill Johnson caught up with Cullen Jones when his Make a Splash Tour reached Denver.

And Cullen made him feel a tad sheepish about the whole not knowing how to swim thing. I’m so glad Cullen Jones killed that sacred cow that says black folks can’t swim because it’s too expensive! He pointed out that we somehow find the money for $200 shoes. Money is not the issue, Cullen asserts, priorities are.

And to say that it came naturally to him is to ignore the fact that he almost became a drowning statistic, rather than the world record holder in the 50 free.

So, he makes world records by day, and smashes stereotypes by night. Let’s hope more follow his lead.