It was the summer of '69 (apologies to Bryan Adams).
As a kid, we were so fortunate to belong to the town pool. My family and friends spent hours there all throughout the summer. It was where I learned to swim and where I developed my 1st lifeguard crush.
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| Little Bro enjoying the kiddie pool |
But first....the RULES:
- NO SUNTAN LOTION: Sunscreen was NOT allowed. I think of this craziness every time my dermatologist burns something off my skin. Allegedly it clogged the filters. This was all supervised by an empowered 19 year old who walked around in white Bermuda shorts, swinging a whistle and confiscating bottles of Coppertone and Hawaiian Tropic. BTW...at this time there was not one drop of shade to be found.
- NO SHOES ON THE POOL DECK: OK I get not running around in your Keds, but no flip flops even (or Zories as we used the call them). The surface was nothing but concrete, again NO shade, so you would walk/run to find a lounge. And of course with the no running rule, you were forced to chose between burning the bottoms of your feet or risking the blast of the lifeguard's over aggressive whistle blowing. NO RUNNING!
- BATHING CAPS: If your hair was any longer than a newly shorn Marine, you had to wear a bathing cap. Bear in mind that in '69 there were many boys with "hippie" hair. Somehow they still managed to look hotwhile us girls were relegated to this discreet and oh so pretty type of bathing cap.
- ADULT SWIM: On a very crowded day the loudspeaker would blast every hour: "We will now have an adult swim. Everyone under the age of 18 MUST now leave the pool". We would sit around the edge of the pool for what felt like a never ending 15 minutes. We would sneak dunks. I think now we did this not so much to cool off, but to get a lifeguard's attention. The huge clock would tick, tick, tick. God help the "older" swimmers (of which I would now be considered which is beyond depressing), who lingered too long. When the whistle blew, they were attacked by hundreds of cannon-balling, diving, jumping kids. They would walk to the ladder wading through us obnoxious kids like they were in quicksand.
- THE TEENAGE SECTION: We were still too young to aspire to any huge life goals. In the summer of '69 our biggest goal was to grow up enough to sit in the teenage section. We would gaze longingly at the 3 slabs of concrete at the other end of the pool. No lounges, just beach towels, with the cool kids sneaking cigarettes, using those tin foil get your sunburn faster things, using hidden bottles of baby oil and spraying Sun In on their golden locks. All while wearing awesome bikinis. I'm not sure if any of them actually went into the water -- the uncoolness of the bathing cap situation was too much to endure. Literally no one under 15 or over 18 would think of sitting here.
- NO FOOD OR WATER: This was waaaaaay before bottled water made its way into our daily lives. And the "picnic" area outside the entrance featured splinter ridden, paint peeling benches which our Moms never allowed us to use. Our option was the "concession stand". This doesn't really match the reality -- which was basically a row of vending machines that only seemed to work every other Tuesday.
Bearing all these rules in mind, it was still an amazing way for us to spend our childhood summers. But on a wonderfully hot & sunny July 4th in the summer of '69, no rules were broken but it still ended badly for me and hundreds of other hot pool goers.
I was enjoying the deeper end of the pool with my Mom. She was standing in the pool watching me jump in over and over. "Watch Mommy, now I'm gonna cannonball. Now I'm gonna jump in holding my arms up over my head like a rocket".
"And now, I'm gonna jump in backwards, watch!"
I cringe as I type this. In hindsight I jumped up but not OUT. A serious miscalculation. My chin made contact with the cement of the pool edge. Note to self: in a chin vs cement showdown, the cement will ALWAYS win.
With my face on the cement, and my legs dangling in the pool, the lifeguard jumped in to save me. OK for a second that was awesome but quickly turned into a mess while he carried me to the nurse's office.
With just one look, the nurse said "yeah you need to go to LIJ", our local hospital. My Mom went back to the lounge to make sure my little brother had someone to watch him. As she was returning to the nurse's office, the intercom blasted "ladies & gentlemen please exit the pool. It will be closed for an undetermined amount of time". Turns out blood in a pool is not acceptable from a public health perspective.
A few hours later we returned to the scene, with 25 brand spanking new stitches. The pool water was....much to my horror...empty. But no one had left. Walking to get my brother, I was pointed at, whispered at, scowled at like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.
So if I ever yelled at your kids when they attempted to jump backwards in a pool, please forgive me. Ironically, I ended up being a lifeguard for many years and was known as "that girl that won't let us have any fun". My son endured this for years as he also grew up at this pool.
I hope you now understand why you never see me jumping into a pool backwards. I don't even like walking backwards and have been known to lose any coordination when I even turn around to back up my car. (Rear view camera = game changer).
Happy July 4th and stay safe people!!
