Real Life Survival Guide: The Paugusset Swim Club

By the time we were ready to record Episode 4, certain things were coming into focus. For starters, recording conversations with interesting people at fun (and interesting) places was working. The sound of the birds chirping and the haircuts in Episode 1; the clatter of dishes and late afternoon patrons talking in Episodes 2 and 3.

This time, we decided to incorporate a sense of... well, time. And it being summer, we headed to the closest body of water we could think of: Paugusset, a family-centric swimming, tennis and social club in Orange, Connecticut.  (I'm vaguely familiar with the place - our family has spent the past 20 summers there!)

The Hearty Hello and the Quick Goodbye

Our host for the afternoon was Mike O'Brien, who coaches swimming at two area high schools and manages the club in the summer, and this week's 'provocateurs' were Binnie Klein and Michael Morand. Binnie produces a music and interview show on WPKN, lectures in Yale's Dept of Psychiatry, and wrote the book,"Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind". Michael describes himself as "a master of the hearty hello and the quick goodbye".

Great Conversations

We talked about stuff like Binnie's summer vacations growing up (which always involved proximity to a racetrack), Duo's insecurity about the size of his legs (too big) as well as mine about  my own (too skinny), Michael's thoughts on a recent trip to New York, and Mike's 'just gotta get in' attitude towards adults who are afraid of the water.

Come on in, the water's fine!