Bathing Suit Hell
When the latest spring swimwear catalogue dropped through my letter slot last week I thought Wo, here's one expressly made for me! It even said so, right there in black and white! It took me a whole minute to realize they were talking about plain old terryCLOTH and not cloth made for me, the former Terry Sheehy now living under witness protection as Terry Marotta.All my life it's been painful to shop for swimwear even when I was a little kid going to summer camp and one of the suggested items for every camper's trunk was a forest green get-up seemingly made of wool. Anyway it was this heavy furry stuff, done over in a kind of waffle weave that caused even the slenderest camper to look like she'd been rolled in a thick layer of batter.God had the taken the trouble to roll me in my own personal coating of batter so you can imagine how I looked in it. However my sister and I were told we had to have it because our mother and aunt as the owners/directors of Old Camp Fernwood felt we should set an example. I hated that suit and was so glad when I could pull on the simple cotton one with the ruffles. I wanted badly to look like those glamorous older campers striding long-leggedly toward the lake for a swim.
Instead I looked like this - and if I tell you that for all my life I've had wild curly hair, you'll pick me out at once in this little lineup:
But all that was in the past. The task I now face is to find a couple of suits for the present.Some suits today have weirdly longish skirts. These I am unable to wear as I can't help but think of them as Eleanor Roosevelt Goes to the Beach.
Some are tankinis, which means they have two pieces, a very nice feature that eliminates the need to peel off the whole tight cocoon of a thing every time you have to go to the bathroom.
I tried one tankini with a spilt top two summers ago and looked like Who Pitched a Pup Tent on Top of THESE Two Solid Columns?Then last year I went with the full sun-repelling line of swimwear, consisting of a skin-tight zip up 'jacket' tight and bermuda-length 'shorts' but that was wrong too: too darn hot for summer wear and talk about Sausage Party!
Accordingly last Thursday I ordered this bathing suit and it just came and it is perfect in that it covers my sun-damaged chest, spares the world yet another cleavage shot and lets me to dart free as a minnow through whatever waters present themselves.
Now I just need a sarong to cover my thighs and a lightweight 'shrug' to cover the ruin of my upper arms and I will be SET!
