There is a difference in recollection concerning the occasion of this and the next few pictures. Larue feels this may be a vacation Ed, Dot, Don, Bob and Bert spent at Astrid and Harvey Grandchamp's cottage on the lake in Minnesota, circa 1946. Bert remembers going on vacation with only Ed and Dot during this WW II period when Don and Bob were away from home in the armed services, and Larue was away with Ken in the Navy. They went to a commercial resort of several cabins and an eating hall on a small lake. It was a lonesome vacation with vain attempts to recreate some of the fun we had at Milton's cabin when all the family was together.

Dot loved to be in the water but attempted forward progress only by swimming side stroke. She and all the Lindberg children would laugh because she hardly moved forward at all. But she could float on her back forever. Ed restricted his swimming to breast stroke because he had to keep his head out of the water to avoid ear infections. He always suffered from being cold, so could never stay in the water for any length of time. 

Although Bert loved to be in the water almost as much as in Milton's boat, he didn't learn to swim until his last year in grade school. He didn't even like to get his head under the water. But he knew from stories brother Bob told that high school swim coach "Willie" Williams had a unique way of teaching non-swimmers to swim. He put one member of his swim team on each side of the four lane pool and had the non-swimmer jump straight out into the pool from the diving board. He would then have to make it to the side of the pool before sinking into this deep end. If he couldn't make it, the swim team members would jump in and keep him from drowning.

That was enough to highly motivate Bert to teach himself to swim in the summer of 1943 before he had to enter high school in January of 1944. This he did by dog paddling to the shore of Cermak pool from farther and farther distances. Then he made himself put his face into the water and do the crawl, again from increasing distances. By the time he entered high school he could swim the crawl for about 40 feet but didn't know how to turn from side to side to breathe. 

On the day he had to demonstrate to Willy that he could swim, he dove straight out from the diving board and swam the crawl until he was in water shallow enough to stop and stand up, all the while churning straight ahead without breathing. Willy was impressed by Bert's speed, if not his lack of breathing. He called two senior members of his swim team to join Bert at the deep end of the pool, and instructed them to dive in and race to the far end. Bert pointed out that he didn't know how to take a breath, but Willie said to just swim as far as he could. Willie blew his whistle and Bert swam as hard and long as he could and made it to the end of the pool. When he reached the end he stood up and was surprised to see that the others hadn't reached the end in times much different than his! Willie immediately got Bert to join the swim team, where he learned to swim the crawl properly but not much else. You can see in the picture below that Willie liked to have a big team. Bert is fifth from the right in the middle row. The real competitive swim team is in the front row. Bert was also on the track team, where he really did compete and won points running distance races.

Scott was staying with the Prates at Ela Road until his sister Claudia was born. The Prates were to go to Chicago (where Ken and Larue lived on Polk Street) and get Scott when his baby brother or sister was born. But the baby was very late and until born the Prates couldn't leave home for fear that they would miss the call to come get Scott. Ela Road was about 45 miles from Chicago, a long way to go when needed quickly, so it was decided that the Prates would simply take him to Ela Road until the baby was born. They kept him after Claudia was born until the home Ken and Larue were building next to them on Ela Road was completed. It was only a little over a month before Ken and Larue moved into their home. By that time Scott was confused and thought the Prate granparents' home was his home. The Prates loved that and encouraged it. Scott spent most of his time there. Larue couldn't leave the new baby to go bring Scott home while also carrying baby Claudia down and back (which was a city block away). Doing this several times a day to try to keep Scott home wasn't feasible. The situation unfortunately created a rift between Scott and Larue that was never mended. The Prates always encouraged Scott to think of them as his closest family and try as she would Larue could never undo that relationship. The rift remains to this writing, 1997. It began in 1948, a heartbreak for Larue. Unfortunately, Ken could never put Larue before his mother, either, and the Prates loved that, too.