SWIMMING LESSONS

I was barely 4 on my first camp out at Grapevine Lake. I still smell the smoke, I remember the stringer of fish I caught from the bank, and my father cautioning as it grew into dusk not to wander too far from the camp in the brush, and to watch out for Gullywampuses.
“Whats a Gullywampus?” I asked.
“it’s a Gullywampus” was his reply. 
Over the years I came to understand that that was exactly right. A Gullywampus was a Gullywampus, it could be anything from a cow skull to a fishing lure, but on that first camping trip it was probably snakes.
I can take you to that spot even today. It looks different now, 57 years later. Amazingly, there are a lot more trees. A lot more brush.
My most recurring memory of that trip was standing on the bank and looking out across the lake. It seemed a long way to the other shore, but I was sure that if I fell in, I would be able to make it to the other side because I was taking swimming lessons.
It never occurred to me until years later that if I fell in I didn’t have to make it to the other side.
You store everything inside yourself and then one day, wherever you are, whatever the time, it appears just like that.