Saturday, November 18, 2006

A Mermaid Tale

I went down the road today to an art show at Weeki Wachee Springs. Lovely day, lovely watercolours. But better than the paintings--I finally saw an underwater mermaid show. It's five minutes from our house, but I'd never bothered before. Wasn't interested and thought it might be kinda hokey. The first performance was by the "used to be" mermaids, from the fifties and sixties. These older ladies, whose once girlish figures had thickened somewhat since way back then, performed their synchronised swimming moves with amazing grace. So of course I had to come back an hour later and see the performance by the present day mermaids. Who were just as graceful and still had their girlish figures. The funniest part [I don't think it was meant as comedy] was watching the turtles do their clumsy little strokes right in there among the mermaids tails.

I was especially interested because, way back, in what seems like another lifetime, Liz was a synchronised swimmer. Her club practiced at the high school near us [in California]. They practiced hard and were in tip-top shape [she was about eleven or twelve at the time]. At the end of the season they put on a show, and it was wonderful! Quite the little mermaid, my daughter, and I'd almost forgotten, until this afternoon.

3 comments:

Rozanne said...

I've always wanted to see the Weeki Watchee mermaids, figuring that the cheese factor of them would be off the charts.

I didn't know they had to dodge turtles as well as perform all those synchronized moves. Gotta hand it to them, cheesy though the whole thing may be.

Becky in FL said...

You notice the most interesting aspects of things. That sense of humor won't let you alone! I haven't seen the show, but when I read your description I had an idea. The interaction of flipper and fin, bubble and swirl, would make a nice quilt design!

Jess said...

There is a rumour that you make dee-licious Chocolate Banana Bread, Ms. M. And you're holding out on the recipe??

Synchronised swimming at twelve? Your Liz is graceful! I was in the midst of my 'fall over your feet because they're there' stage.