Only at the Y

I swim at the YMCA... well - I try to.  As much as I want to love our neighborhood Y (and in many ways, it's truly great- the staff is superbly friendly, always clean, etc.)  I just get frustrated because it seems that no matter how early or how late, whatever the time, I always seem to have to share the lane with 3 other people.  I'm okay with sharing, I play nice, but I definitely like swimming at my own speed and hate having to loop with people.  Maybe I'm just a brat that grew up in northern virginia and is used to her rec center having an olympic sized pool with 10 very wide lap lanes.

Anyway, during the weekends (and most other times) the two outermost lanes are reserved for some kind of lesson, or a swim practice for a tri team, what have you.  It looked like at this time, there were people learning how to swim for the very first time.  One striking group in particular, looked like a Moroccan family of all ages.  Grandmother, mother, children, brothers, husbands, etc.

  I was doing my thing, had stopped to stretch a little bit, reached over to grab my kickboard, when I noticed that grandma had started waving to the kids in the pool, ran over to the lounge chair and sat herself down.  All of a sudden.... grandma was naked!  How she went from fully clothed to granny panties only was beyond me, she was fast as lightning with that maneuver.  At first I really didn't realize what was happening.  I've seen old lady boobs for as long as I can remember, i.e. my years of rec center swimming coming back to me (I basically workout with everyone 65+).  That, plus the years of taking care of my own grandmother, it didn't really seem strange... until I remembered that we're just in the middle of the Y.  

One young fellow ran over to the lifeguard conducting the swim lessons on the other side of the pool, "WE HAVE A SITUATION! NAKED LADY! NAKED OLD LADY!"  The lifeguard spun around on his heel and just shook his head, "what don't we have to deal with here at the Y?"

The family members of grandma were just mortified and also just couldn't stop laughing.  And who knew?  Maybe it was a cultural thing, maybe she had alzheimer's -- all I know is that grandma wanted in on the pool action and she was ready to jump out of her clothes!

What do you do in that situation but smile at the family and say -- "It's bound to happen to all of us at somepoint in our lives."