If you've checked out the mermaid show at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, you know how special it is.
For people who aren’t aware of the shows, here’s a quick breakdown: insanely athletic women put on mermaid tails and perform underwater while you watch them in an underground theater. Also, they’re in a spring, not a pool, so they’re fighting the current.
This has been going on since the 1940s. Recently, five women who used to perform there in the 1960s relived their mermaid days through Wish of a Lifetime from AARP, a program that allows older adults realize their dreams.
Arlene Brooks, Ruth Greening, Mary Jo McCoy, Cheryl Wood and Donna Paul range from age 75 to 79.
And now, they've gotten the chance to pull their tails back on and hop back in the spring — just like the old days.
But it’s a bit tougher getting in those tails now.
For instance, Brooks laughed as she talked about how hard it was to pull the tail on.
"I've got a messed-up knee, a messed-up stomach, a messed-up arm," Brooks said.
McCoy said that the tail is all good for her, until she gets in the water. That's when it falls right off.
But as the women entered the water, they said it felt like they were all 19 again.
"When I get back in the water, it's all there — every last bit of it. I'm weightless. I'm young. I'm pretty. I'm having a good time."Arlene Brooks
"It's like you never left. It's magical," McCoy said. "It feels like you're at home again."
Although it was like the old times, they didn't try their hand at some of their old tricks or routines. Brooks said they were just trying to see if they could remember how to get down that deep into the water.
"How to hold our breath, how to move the self-buoyancy apparatus that we have attached to our body so we don't float to the top," Brooks added.
When asked how that was working out, Brooks laughed and said, "So-so."
Greening recalled how they would do three to five shows individually ― and up to seven during the summer. Being a mermaid was a hard day's work.
"I don't think they realize the endurance that you have to have," Greening said about those who've never done a show.
McCoy added that they were all tiny and had to fight the current to stay underwater. The tails have sequins and weigh about 35 pounds — so core strength had to be on point.
"So these little girls that are swimming now, they're doing an amazing job," McCoy said of Weeki Wachee's current cast of mermaids.
But although time has ticked on, and they're no longer doing show after show, their time as mermaids will forever stick with them. Brooks said one aspect of this is a lot of pride and "a lot of mermaids on her wall."
McCoy said she has plenty of mermaid novelties all over her house, too.
"My husband said if I brought another mermaid home, he was going to kill me," she laughed.
Even all these years later, Brooks still gets that itch to transform back into a mermaid and dive into the water.
"I live in Arcadia, Florida, and occasionally I throw my tail on when I'm feeling especially crazy, and I swim around the pool," Brooks said. "And everybody comes out and takes a look and says, 'Oh, yeah, Arlene's mermaid.' I am."
But for Greening, that desire to jump into a lake and be a mermaid again is long gone now that she has moved to Washington state.
"It's too dang cold," she said.
The group has a special bond with the "mer-sisters" cultivated over the years.
"We've kept in communication, and it's just very special to be back and swimming with the people that we love," Greening said.
Brooks added that it would never be the same as the good ol' days. They describe how at a night show, the water bubbles look like diamonds on black velvet as you sit and look up at the moonlight coming in.
"Nothing's the same when you talk about the water coming out of the boil — there's just a texture to it. There's a feel to it. There's a lightness," she said.
And while the body doesn't move as it did decades ago, age is still just a number in their minds.
As Brooks said, "Once a mermaid, always a mermaid."
"When I get back in the water, it's all there — every last bit of it," Brooks stated. "I'm weightless. I'm young. I'm pretty. I'm having a good time."
