This is how you end up walking on your hands.

Do you remember in Peanuts how sometimes Snoopy would get super enthusiastic and end up looking like a show-off? No? Well, here’s a refresher:

Why is this on my mind? Because this weekend at the pool my friend Margaret  pulled a Snoopy.

It was incredibly hot, so we spent a fair amount of time in the water. Near the end of the day there was a group of four women standing around in the shallow end talking. Margaret and I jumped in and she challenged me to race a lap.

As we clung to the wall post-race, catching our breath, one of the girls from the group attempted a few strokes of butterfly. She clearly wasn’t strong enough to pull it off, so it petered out pretty quickly. But not quickly enough that Margaret didn’t see it.

Next thing I knew, Margaret was on her way toward the deep-end, swimming a powerful butterfly past the girls, clearly showing up the chick who had just sunk. (In her defense, Margaret was just curious to know if she could manage a whole lap, not overtly trying to be competitive.) In any case, it struck my funny bone, and by the time she reached the other end, I was snorting with laughter.

“What?” she called from the deep end. I shook my head.

About this time one of the girls tells her friends, “My stroke was always backstroke…”

And lo and behold, here comes Margaret, heading past them via backstroke, arms cranking like a windmill.

© Charles M. Schultz

I’m clutching my stomach by the time she pulls up next to me. Fortunately, instead of completing the triple-play by starting a lap of breaststroke, Margaret proposes a handstand contest.

And that’s how I found myself upside-down, holding my breath and acting like I was twelve again. I think I have a new nickname for Margaret: The Red Baron.

Not that it’s a bad thing.

Tags: friends, handstand contest, humor, Margaret, Peanuts, show-off, Snoopy, Swimming