Summers Past

Read a blog post a few weeks back that made me think of summers past. Childhood summers. Hot summers where swimming was a major part of the summer.

We lived about 30 minutes from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and the beach Big Foot State Park. It was a treat to don swimming suits, load up towels and drive there. The parking lot was on one side of the road/highway and the beach was on the other. I don’t know if it is still set up the same but you really had to look out as a driver and as a walker when crossing.

Once you crossed the road you were there on the beach. The ‘sand’ was only about 15-20 wide. It was just enough to find a spot to dump your towel. Of course it is a lake so you didn’t worry about a tide coming in and getting your things. Then you would wade into the lake and oh my it was cold. Dug out by glaciers I’m sure.

I can still see the bright sun and then sudden shadow of passing cumulus clouds. Hot air and cold water. We didn’t really ‘swim’ that I remember. Mostly waded and flung water. I don’t even remember how long we spent before we would gather up and drag our stuff back over the road, find the car in the lot and load in with sand crusting out of all corners. I think we sat on our towels going home to try and keep the seats dry. Windows wide open because we had 4-60 ac. (4 open windows at 60 miles an hour). I don’t remember the next part, but I’m pretty sure my mother hosed us down in the yard before we were allowed in the house.

Later after moving to a different house we had a ‘pool’ in the driveway. Not great for swimming but splashing just fine.

Later still were the summers were we got season passes to the city pool. That was a deal! Even paying for four kids. The mornings were for swim classes, which at some point we all took part in at least one year and later I even signed up my son when we were home. Then there was a break for the life guards/teachers to get lunch. The pool then opened to the general public at 1 and remained open until 9, with lights when it started to get dark.

Mom would drop us off with a time that she was going to return. Dash though the showers in the changing rooms and out to the pool. It was/is a pretty terrific community pool. It had a shallow circular ‘baby’ pool. Then the real pool started with a 2 ft section that gradually deepened. At probably 3 ft it had a ‘float’ chain marker across demarking the ‘kiddie’ section from the next part which continued to deepen until about 4.5 ft where there was another float chain. At this point the pool took a right-hand turn and you had the length and depth for swimming lanes, which were marked on the bottom of the pool. The pool continued to the right deepening until it was deep enough for diving…low and high. How we would line up for our brief air-borne thrill.

The high dive honestly scared the $#!* out of me. I did/would jump off it, but I never (that I can remember) actually dove off it.

The low dive was easier and I actually, after lots of trying, finally got to where I could do one summersault in the air before entering feet first. Cannonballs were popular (not with me). Once you entered the water you swam as quickly as you could to the ladder and, shivering, back into line for the next 2 seconds of excitement.

Some days we were there from afternoon until closing around nine. Around five thirty it thinned out quickly and being there late was nice as you weren’t bumping into people. I remember coming home with eyes stinging from chlorine because we kept them open under water to see where we were going and just horsing around and the length of time we were there. We sure slept well those nights.

And I’m sure my mother was glad to have a quiet house to herself.

Looking at other pictures available, it looks like the diving boards have been replaced with ‘slides’ which to be honest would be a heck of a lot safer!

But you can see the ‘lights’ are still there for evening swimming.