Dennis Gorden on Learning to Swim in the Rice Wells
Growing up west of Katy looked a little different than it does today. Dennis Gorden shares a lighthearted story about learning to swim in the rice wells and an unexpected lesson that came with it.
Transcript
Transcript edited for clarity and readability.
I grew up at Humble Plant out west of Katy. My dad was a petroleum engineer, and we learned to swim in rice wells.
They’d come to the school, pick us up on the bus, take us out there, and help us learn to swim. The first thing they always told us to do was slide into the water feet first, then turn around and start kicking.
It wasn’t hard work, but they said to do it, so we did.
Later, one of the instructors asked if we ever wondered why they always had us do that. We said we thought it was just to get used to the water, because the water was very cold.
He said, “No, it’s to get all the turtles and snakes out of the water first.”
We said, “Oh, thanks for telling us now.”
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