The Real Mermaids of San Marcos, Texas

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This made me miss Pushing Daisies again after all this time.

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Look at the mermaid eating a banana. That’s something you don’t see every day.

Just look at her!

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Brings back memories of my youth - In the 1960s and 1970s, the Hill Country (eleven hundred springs) was the place to be for families vacationing in Texas. We visited Aquarena Springs practically every year during our annual pilgrimage to Wimberley. Good times.

These are not real mermaids. Real mermaids are the Haenyeo (해녀) of Jeju Island, Korea. (제주도). The last of the Haenyeo generation are retiring soon. "Wearing a lead-weighted vest and goggles, they plunge into the 20-meter depths where they stay underwater holding their breath for two or three minutes. They are so adapted to life beneath the sea, they actually could be mermaids. Once they come back to the surface, they make a whistling sound, which is their unique way of breathing out the carbon dioxide and breathing in fresh oxygen. " "In the past, island girls began gathering clams or abalone by the time they were ten years old. They would dive between six to seven hours a day, but also do farm chores. The common routine was to do farm work, go diving, and then go back to do more farm work. Because of the grueling daily life, female divers had a saying: “Better to be born a cow than a woman.” " http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=309618

That series/show rocked. I was sad when it was axed. :frowning:

My best friend from high school and his sister both worked at Aquarena Springs when they were in college. He drove a glass bottom boat, and she was a mermaid. They were perfect college jobs, with lots of interesting things going on. My friend has a story about how he accidentally went over a duck with the glass bottom boat. The passengers got to see the duck tumble around under the glass, then heard it hit the propellers. The boat left a trail of feathers and blood behind it as it glided over the water.

I stopped in there ten or so years ago, during a cross-country road trip, and they are so mermaids! They are, they are, they are!

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