As a young boy growing up just over the hill from the city swimming pool, I spent a lot of time and a lot of summers there. While many of my friends were playing Little League or Softball down at the city ball park, I was a fixture at the pool. This began when I was about 7 years old and continued until I was about 16. there were several of us including Donald "Bucky" Roberts, Freddie Byars, Charles Napier, Joe Mann, Jimmy "Simo" Simmons, Toppy Lile, Tommy Gossett and many many others.
I remember "passing my test" was one of the biggest days of my young life (I was only 8 years old). "Passing your Test" meant you could swim from the ladder by the lifeguard's stand to the rope at the 4' mark and back, non-stop. Only about 50% of kids made it on the first try. Achieving this allowed you to swim in the deep water (up to 9' - pretty deep for someone about 4' tall) and it allowed you to dive off of the diving boards.
Being at the pool was the "coolest" thing we could do back then. There was a "pecking order" of sorts in the line to become a "cool dude." First you went from the "kiddie pool" (about 18" deep), then to the "intermediate pool" (up to 4' deep at the rope) and then on to the "deep end” where the depth gradually accelerated from 4’ to 9’. There were two diving boards. The small board was about 3’ off the water and the “high dive” was the Mother of all diving boards. It was about 10’ from the water’s surface. Only the best got to hang out on the high dive. I remember it was only about four or five feet from the edge of the pool on the left side. I’ll bet this made the insurance actuaries nervous. The sidewalk had sunk about five inches over there so when the splashed water began to fill the sunken area it made a pool of warm to hot water on sunny days.
When I was in the 7th grade, I had this huge “crush” on a girl named Shan Mickel. She was in the 6th grade and her Dad was the office manager at the telephone company (it was in the area where Carpet Decorators is now). Shan didn’t even know I existed. She was very popular and was a Junior Pro cheerleader and was active in the Junior Band. I only remember seeing her come to the pool one time. Man, I really wanted to impress her. I still hadn’t graduated comfortably to the high dive, so I knew the only way I could get her attention was to do something spectacular off the low dive. I had been experimenting with a “Spank the Baby,” a maneuver where you run to the end of the board, take a spring, extend your feet straight out in front of you at a right angle to your torso, and simply dropping your butt on the board, allowing the “spring” to throw you into a dive. If you did it right, it made a loud “popping” sound! Before you hit the water, you’d hear spectators “ooh” and “aah!” It probably was the most idiotic thing a guy could do, but it fit my style just fine.
I waited until the time was right. Shan decided she wanted to go off the low dive herself so I made sure I was just in front of her so she couldn’t miss this fantastic dive I was about to make. There were a couple of guys in front of me and I was in front of her. One was Carol Harrison who was older than I was by a few years and he already managed to grow hair on his legs. Carol could only do one dive and that was a swan dive. He did it perfectly but man, anyone could do that. The next diver was some geek who just ran out off the end of the board without even taking a spring and holding his nose and “flopping” into the water. Nothing special there!
Finally, it was my turn. I climbed up on the board and walked out to the end of it and took a couple of light springs. I held up my finger to see which way the wind was blowing (this was in the middle of July). Thrusting out my chest, I slowly walked back to the beginning point on the board and turned around to face the water. I could feel her eyes staring at me in admiration (I could “feel” them, I just couldn’t “see” them). At last, I took off like a gazelle. When I got to the end of the board, I took my spring. I went up into the air gracefully and threw my feet straight ahead. I began my descent and waited for the “Pop,” which soon followed. The board was a wooden board about four inches thick and had a woven mat for traction on it. This mat was held in place by a series of steel staples out at the end. Steel staples rust. Steel staples break. When my butt hit the board, I felt the staple that had broken and stood straight up. I felt it penetrate my swimming trunks and I felt it penetrate my posterior. I felt the board bend and begin to “ascend.” As I left the board, I heard the “rip” and as I semi-flipped to complete my dive, I could see at least part of my swimming trunks still on the end of the board, although I didn’t know exactly which part. I didn’t hear any “oohs” or “ahhs” as I hit the water but I did hear a series of giggles. I was sure one of them came from her.
I went under the water and tried to stay there as long as possible but knew I had to surface sooner or later. The exit ladder was in the northwest corner of the pool below the lifeguard's stand. In those days there was no filtering system at the pool and it had to be drained, cleaned and refilled about every 10 days (adults referred to it as the "concrete pond"). Toward the end of these 10 day periods the water would get pretty "murky." Thank goodness, this event happened toward the end of one of those 10 day periods. One could scarcely see below the surface. "Simo" was the lifeguard that particular day and as soon as I could get him to stop laughing, I asked him to go to my basket (patrons of the pool were assigned a numbered basket to keep their personal belongings in) and get me a towel, which he did. Slowly I sunk the towel below the surface, wrapped it around my waist and exited the water. There was a pretty large crowd at the pool on that hot July day and Shan simply blended into the crowd. I left for home, wounded pride and all and don't recollect ever seeing her at the pool again (her Dad got transferred a few months later so they moved).
I have a lot of great memories growing up at that old swimming pool and I've never found any social place I've liked any better. Sadly, from time to time as I read the "obits," I'll see where some boyhood friend passed away and it makes me think of some of the good times we had up there. This happened this morning (Thursday) as I read the obituary on Joe Mann. He was a couple of years older than I was but he was a cool guy and he had a motor scooter (it always kept him in trouble, too). Joe was the Senior Lifeguard (the lifeguard in the deep end) when I was the Junior Lifeguard (the one by the 4' rope). After he graduated, I got promoted to Senior Lifeguard. Happily no one drowned on either of our watches. Rest in peace, Joe.
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