Louisville’s Lakeside Swim Club

Dig the pictures. From the time I was 3 to 9 years-old, my family lived on Cardiff Road in Louisville, eight miles from this gem according to Google Maps.

I did not know LSC existed until stumbling upon this article. My fam frequented the much closer Plantation Country Club on a daily basis. Yes, you read that correctly, Plantation Country Club. Here’s some history on it. In short, it was an inexpensive, decidedly middle class public swim/tennis/golf club that no longer exists. My sister and a friend taught me to swim there. My brother was a 10-meter dare-devil jumping legend. I started playing golf there when I was 5 or 6. It was a nine hole executive course with lots of par 3s and short 4s. The first hole was about 75 yards long and I dominated it. My tennis greatness can also be traced back to Plantation. As well as my chronic skin cancer.

Hard to believe that when I was 6 and 7 years old, I’d lay a couple of clubs and a putter across my bicycle handlebars and ride to the course, crossing a very busy thoroughfare on the way. A benefit of being the fourth child I suppose.

My most vivid memory of those years—besides the Twinkies—was a family dinner after a long summer’s day on the links. I was a young Tommy Bolt. Earlier that evening, unbeknownst to me, my dad drove past the course on his way home from selling kitchen appliances at General Electric at the exact moment I let a club fly into the upper atmosphere. As dinner drew to a close, my dad said, “If I EVER see you toss another club, those will be your last ones!” And then it kinda ramped up from there.

My dinner plate overflowed with tears. And I never threw another club. Half of this paragraph is true.

Elite Level Arm

That’s what scouts concluded after watching me play little league in Louisville, KY and Talmadge, OH.

Of course, they also said my hitting was so bad I was a serious liability to whichever team I played for. I resembled that!

So it’s really no surprise I made the greatest throw of all time. It happened twenty years ago when the Byrnes family was daytripping at Paradise on Mount Rainier. Despite it being mid-summer, as always, snow was aplenty at Paradise. Both daughts excitedly hurried ahead while I prepared a perfect, baseball size, snowball. When Eldest was WAY, WAY above and in front of me on the long mountain pathway, I took dead aim and unleashed my howitzer. The snowball landed right between her seven year old shoulder blades.

The Good Wife was horrified with herself. How could she have picked me to spend her life with. I was torn between worry about whether Eldest was okay and amazement at my incredible accuracy. Okay, I was mostly amazed.

Yesterday, back at the exact place of the crime, The Good Wife was a Good Sport and agreed to re-enact the historic moment with me. I planned to share the vid with you, but WordPress isn’t cooperating.

So all I have to share is the second greatest throw of all time.