I just finished watching "Million Dollar Mermaid" on TV. It was just as good tonight as I remember it being when I was a child.

My grandmother lived a block away from the movie theater in my home town, so I went to the movies (Can you imagine I went alone?) maybe twice a week. This started about the time I was in the first grade. I especially adored Esther Williams & alternately wanted to be her or Betty Grable.

The problem was that I could not swim. I could make it under water several feet, or swim on top of the water, but I had no idea how to breathe, dog paddle, or those other things that make it necessary to stay afloat. Finally about age 49 I took swimming classes through the Red Cross program at a Metro pool in Nashville. I managed to get all the way through Intermediates. Never could I swim like Esther Williams, but it was still easy to daydream my way through a swim in the deep end of the pool. It just feels so different when you swim in deep water compared to water that is about 4 feet deep.

I had not seen one of Esther's movies in many years, but it was still great to me.