Reply #16: It never even occurred to me and I'm sorry if I offended you..

[Fumesucker]

I didn't realize that swimming skills were so racially/culturally divided, and I grew up in the deep South.

But I knew how to swim before I was ever in a pool, learned in a local lake and nearly drowned in the process. We certainly weren't well off enough to afford a pool, I was about ten and could swim like a fish before I started going to the community pool. There was a private swim club and a YMCA with an indoor pool in our area but we had a fairly nice and large true community pool as well, as I recall admission for kids was a dime.