Living Outside The Lines: Carrying On an Ole Family Tradition

By, Becky J Miller

Family traditions can be awful, like Aunt Mabel’s fruitcake at Christmas time, or Hank Williams Jr.’s notorious partying.  They can also be those natural, organic, occasions that are repeated often enough through the years that one day you look back and think “wow!” look how this custom has evolved.  Subsequently, the ritual becomes a means in which family history is recorded, plus they can be really fun!

My paternal grandmother suffered from polio and was wheelchair bound for most of her adult life.   Desiring to allow her freedom from the confines of her chair, when my father was still a teenager, my grandfather built an in-ground swimming pool in their backyard.  I don’t think anyone could have imagined what that pool would come to represent. 

Swimming in that pool became so much a part of my DNA that it always shocks me to discover adults who don’t know how to swim.  I naively assume everyone swims.   My summers were spent in that pool, sun up to sun down, and sometimes even after.  Night swims with the pool light on were an extra special treat. 

My older cousins were always on hand for summer swims.  Two of them passed away much too young, but anytime I think of them, I remember exuberant afternoons jumping, diving and goofing off in Gran Les’ pool. Recalling the good times shared with them, helps ease the sadness of their loss.

Knowing how much my grandfather’s pool shaped mine and my sister’s childhoods (my brother is 14 years younger than me so he wasn’t around for as many of those gatherings), my dad decided to continue the tradition in the lives of his grandchildren; a few years after they married, he and my step-mother purchased a house with a swimming pool. 

My sister’s children and mine spent many happy hours playing together in Gran Daddy’s pool.  The oldest of the cousins are just a few years apart and swam relatively well, but mastered their swimming and diving skills in that pool. My sister’s youngest three along with my brother’s two boys cut their swimming floatation device training wheels in Gran Daddy’s pool.

My siblings and I along with our spouses invested a fair share of our time chasing toddlers around the pool, coaxing them into the water and catching them when they jumped from the diving board.  There were a few completely relaxed years where all the kiddos could swim.  Today, two of the grandchildren are married with kids of their own, yet the pool parties at Gran Daddy’s continue to be a celebrated tradition.

Now, however, there are even more of us to instruct the newest generation of swimming offspring.  4^th of July weekend most of us gathered at Gran Daddy’s for a pool party.  The nephew who once crouched by the fence in his floaties refusing to join the cousin water bash is today a handsome young man who introduced his girlfriend to the extended family for the first time.  Another nephew, the general manager of a well-known pizza chain, at the tender age of 20, rearranged his work schedule so he and his longtime girlfriend could join us.  The two “babies” of my sister’s clan 12 & almost 14, now lovingly and patiently indulge the whims of their almost-two-year-old niece as she toddles about the patio.

My brother’s two sons, 9 & 6, also rank among the swimming Crumptons; the oldest proudly showing off his mastery of the water with an impressive dive while the youngest, still a bit timid paddled back and forth in the shallow end.

I am sure my grandfather is smiling down from heaven as he watches the family he so adored continue on with a beloved family tradition.  Thank you, Gran-Daddy and Gran Denise for all of the loving efforts you put into ensuring the tradition never dies.

Until Next Time,

Becky J Miller

“Warrior Princess”