- Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
Elderly Mennonite Man Is Fluid.
I assume that the elderly Mennonite man donned a lady's swimsuit so that he could join his old wife in our weekly Ladies-Only Swim Class at the YMCA in Illinois. I knew the couple well enough to know that they were Mennonite and that they were very pleasant to talk to but I only realized that he was a man when I saw him deftly shoulder himself into the pool using upper body strength that only a man possesses. This was decades ago, before the gender identity uproar, and I felt free to tease and compliment him on his prowess. He laughed with delight at my attention and began performing vigorous, splashy pushups on the edge of the pool. His wife laughed too but she was worried about the consequences of him blowing his girly cover so she subdued him and pulled him back into the pool. Class started and all was well. They were my favorite couple in the class, I never even thought about where he changed, in the men's locker room I suppose. Those were easier, brighter times, making for fond memories.
P.S. The Mennonites have quite an interesting history. "The largest populations of Mennonites are found in Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, and the United States. There are Mennonite settlements in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Columbia. The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands still continues ..."
Brighter Times
by Annmarie Throckmorton, copyright 2024
