When I was young I learned to swim at Halls Pond in Vermont...and then my summers were spent at my grandparents pool....They had this pool that was 8 ft deep at one end...My brothers and I would be in as soon as it opened despite it being freezing cold, and we swam in it all summer long. I dreamed of being a mermaid. I'm so jealous that now you can actually buy mermaid fins. If I was young I would have a pair. My children got to spend their summers at the local children's pool. I can't remember how young they were when we started to visit the pool, but we spent every summer until we moved at that pool. I think it was 550 steps from our house. We called it the long walk to the pool
The pool opened just a few days after school ended. Everybody knew that it really did not open on the first day, but we still had to be a part of the group that went down to see if it was open. They had a snack shack, games and crafts. We would walk down at 10am and stay until lunch. Then we would come back at 1pm and stay till closing time. Those were the best lazy days of summer.
This is "Kevin" The EVIL Life Guard / Swim instructor...I actually thought he was a nice person, but the kids seemed to think he was out to get them. Perhaps it was because he would tell them he wanted them to play the scrub the pool game...and they all knew they were just helping him clean the pool...He also expected them to do lots of laps across the pool and work when they would much rather just play.. The kids still talk about "Evil Kevin"...
The last two summers that we lived in New Jersey we watched one of my friends daughters. I called her my third child. We were total swim all day never leave the water types, and she was very afraid of water when she came to stay with us, she got over her fear pretty fast though.
We eventually out grew the little pool swim lessons and in the mornings spent our time at the bigger community pool for swim lessons, and then spent our afternoons at the little pool. One year my daughter spent so much time swimming she got an ear infection, she didn't tell me about it because she knew she would be banned from the water. When we finally took her to the doctors her ear was pretty much swollen shut. Oh the things kids will do to swim.
Here are some photo's of the long walk...the kids practically ran down to the pool, but kind of slowly walked back. That pool was always so cold that you went home and it took forever to warm back up.
This was the saddest moment the sign saying the pool was closing for the summer... Summer was ending, everyone was talking about who their teacher was going to be...I think Summer should be longer and the school year should be shorter. We miss our Third Child, we often talk about how nice it was to spend our days with her at the pool and hopefully when we get out to New Jersey someday again we can visit with her. We also miss time at a pool, but the fact was once you reached the age of twelve you were no longer allowed in the pool. I had always thought if we stayed in New Jersey that my children might have worked at the pool.
The nice thing after a day at the pool was hanging up the towels and having an ice cream snack...
Did you spend your summers at a pool, a lake or the ocean?
Hope you are enjoying your summer!
G.G.
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