CATERPILLARS

Hanging out in Sarasota, Florida with long time distanced, recently located friends. It’s really cold here, for the natives. It’s fresh for sure; something about the wind and humidity that makes moderate temperatures feel cold. We’ve been having a good time, seeing the sights and taking some photographs. Yesterday we went exploring and wound up at a public access beach on the bay. The sun was high and bright but you needed a jacket and I had long sleeves. 

It turns out, the facility is the access where Sarasota High School’s Rowing Team practices. When we got to the beach there were oars lined up neatly against a low wall, lots and lots of oars, and teenagers were all over the place, stretching, jogging and, you know, being teenagers. Then, from up the hill, under the trees there comes a caterpillar-like apparition with a 40 ft. long, shiny body and lots of legs, inching its way down the walk. Out the narrow walk-way it creeped, to a low platform just above the water. On command, the legs raised up the body and half a dozen young ladies appear. They turned the boat on its side, then right side up and ease it down into the water. The caterpillar was boat and crew and they were going out in the wind and cold, for fun.

SHS Rowing Team won the National Championship last year and their enthusiasm reflected that mentality. Up the hill, two more caterpillars were making progress down the path. There was a rack just up the beach that looked like something a giant would keep his shoes in, in his giant closet. Square framing with slots three deep and four wide, big enough to hold small, flat bottom, aluminum boats with their motor-lower units hanging out the end. Other kids attacked the motor boats like ants on an apple core. The drug them out and into the water, out along the walk-way and tied them off. 

The guys with bigger, longer legs were coming and any doubts about what was going on were dispelled. Before the last boat was in the water, the first girl crew was off the point, getting oriented into the wind and making way. The motor boats were for coaches and for safety and it looked like a military operation. I was on top of an observation platform, telling myself I was a hearty, mid-westerner and this breeze wasn’t cold, no I wasn’t cold, not at all. 

Shutter-shutter, snap, click; shutter-shutter, snap click, my camera was going strong. I remember football and wrestling practices back in another century and there was an element of that atmosphere. I know a lady who was a rower in college and I understand how brutal the training and conditioning is, if you want to excel at rowing. Pulling on that oar requires every muscle group in the body to exert an all out effort, time after time, every stroke. The wind and water wouldn’t let them overheat so the only thing that would require a lesser effort would be a change of heart or exhaustion. I love ‘em. Go get ‘em guys. I’ll not know your names when championships come around this year I’ll remember the caterpillars. I think that should be your mascot nam,The SHS Caterpillars.