THE TRADITION CONTINUES

We had the grandkids for a few days, they went home for a couple of days, and now Son, DIL, and grandkids came to "the lake" to stay in their travel trailer and have fun for a few days.  DIL's sister, who lives in Amsterdam, is here for the month of August and wanted to com here for a few days.

Mr. W's Dad, called Pepa by his grandchildren, started water skiing in about 1960.  He loved the water, boating, fishing, and pretty much anything that involved the water.  Mr. W inherited that love for the water.  Mr. W started skiing when he was 5 years old.  Back then, there weren't ski jackets there were ski belts.  You wore them as your life "jacket" back in the "olden" days (as my grandkids would say).  Mr. W's mom made him wear 2 ski belts because she was so scared of the water and of him drowning.  Now that had to be a funny sight! Here is a little 5 year old with 2 ski belts going from under his arms to his hips.  It is a wonder that he could ski at all.  Well, on second thought, he probably floated on top of the water and just had to hold on to the rope!

When Son was around 6, Mr. W started teaching him how to ski.  Mr. W found a pair of combo skis sitting by a trash container at his office.  They were in perfect condition.  He brought them home, cut them down to kids' size, and drilled a hole in each one so that he could tie them together.  For those of you that don't know, that makes it easier to keep the skis together so you don't do the splits in the water.  It is a lot for a kid to do everything you have to do to learn to ski.  So, Son learned to ski on two that summer and learned to slalom ski the next summer when he was 7.  Son was really into baseball when he was growing up, so he would ski every summer, but it wasn't something that he put his competitive spirit into. 

So when Boy-child was born, Mr. W started dreaming of when the 4th generation would start water skiing.  Boy-child did not let him down.  Boy-child is 10 years old.  He learned to combo ski when he was 8 years old.  Since he did not spend a great deal of his summer on a lake like our kids did, he was a little older when he learned.  But, there is nothing wrong with that.  Last year, he was cutting side to side and declared at the end of the summer that "next summer, I'm going to slalom ski." 

Well, guess what?  He did!

Needless to say, we are all very proud of him.  The tradition continues.