Were You Taught to Swim as a Fundy?

[Papa Bear]

Our church and school were more Fundy-lite (GARBC). If it wasn't a church or school sponsored activity, they didn't try to tell us what we could wear. When we went to Bible Camp (also GARBC) there were rules about swimsuits (basically, no two-pieces for the girls, and no Speedos for the guys.) Some years, they were a little more specific (guys' swim trunks had to be a certain length, certain styles forbidden) and some years they required a t-shirt or cover-up going to and from the beach.

Usually the guys and girls were on different schedules, e.g., girls swim while guys play sports, then switch, so we weren't usually in the water at the same time, but there would be a few evenings with free swim time for everyone, we all swam together, and it was no big deal. Some years, the camp director would require t-shirts over swimsuits at the beach, but only when it was guys and girls together, and other years guys and girls swam together in just normal swimsuits (but still no two-pieces or Speedos.) When I first heard about a rule against "mixed bathing" I thought they meant co-ed showers. I thought, "Duh! Why would anyone think that was allowed?"

I don't remember swimming lessons at Bible Camp, but almost all of the kids could swim, at least a little. You had to pass a swimming test to go outside the shallow area and swim to the raft. When my dad did his graduate work summers at PCC (he taught at our christian school) we travelled to Florida and spent the summer at a campground with a swimming pool. We were in the pool every day, and he would teach us to swim evenings and weekends. I wasn't likely to drown (which finally gave me the courage to get baptized) but I learned to swim much better later on, when my dad directed a non-Fundy camp for several summers in a row. We had a Red Cross certified Water Safety Instructor giving daily swimming lessons to the campers, so I got five weeks of daily lessons every summer.