Today is my Mom’s birthday. She would have been 84. The last birthday she saw on this earth was her 66^th. Like last year, I am using the month of her birth to commemorate my colorful childhood in the Meadows. The loss of Mr. Bartels reminded me that it’s important to think about the people and places that make up the fabric of our lives. None of us gets to stay here forever.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories from the seventies and eighties. I was reminded of a couple more pool stories from my youth. If you recall, you had to be eight to go to the pool without an adult during daytime hours. All I ever wanted to do was go to the pool. Many times, my older brothers and sisters did NOT want to go the pool. Being cursed with an August 31 birthday (right AFTER the summer was almost over, oh the agony) it seemed unfair to me that I should have to suffer the entire summer of 1978. My life would be SOOOO perfect after I turned eight. After all, in my mind, I was a stellar swimmer…practically ready for the Olympics…so why should I have to wait until I was eight? I regularly snuck up to the pool, waited for the guard at the front desk to get distracted, and snuck into the locker room. From the safety of the locker room, I could scan other guests at the pool and see if there was anyone I could attach myself to for the day. It didn’t take long before the guards were on to my shenanigans, and would ask me who I was with. In those days, the pool could be crowded, so I may get in an hour of swimming before I was caught. So I played cat and mouse with the guards all summer. In August, I made up new birthdays. After August 13, I settled on the simple fact that my mom had transposed the numbers three and one. If I remember correctly, it was at this point that the guards gave up. I wore them down. When I hear that song about being 16, then 18, then 21, it reminds me of how badly I wanted to be 8. And seriously, isn’t that a bit young to swim unsupervised???

Another memory from a few years later involved the “older boys” of the swim team. When I have to remember exactly who, my memory gets a little fuzzy. It was a Tuesday or Thursday home meet, and we were down to the last relay, the 15-18 boys relay. There was no relay from the other team, so the boys had the pool to themselves. They grabbed a pickle (those green cut up hoses that we used all over the pool) and decided it was the relay baton that needed to be handed from one person to the next. One of the Laue boys (Chuck?? Steve??) came out of the office with two tennis balls somehow tied on to the front of his speedo. When the baton came his way, he stuck it between the tennis balls and spun around on the starting block (down on the shallow end in those days) for all to admire. This may have been the same meet that Larry came out in a woman’s suit, stuffed with the appropriate padding, and in full makeup.

Fast forward a few years and I remember working as a guard with John Bartels as my manager (I worked under a few managers…Lisa Marth, Diane Shea, Michelle Lia). The pool was getting vandalized regularly. We would show up for morning practice and deck chairs and guard chairs would be in the pool. The final straw was when they threw in a wood picnic table, a grill, and the cement filled tires that held the volleyball net over the junior pool. All were in the deep end. It was a huge mess, thanks to the grill, and a ton of work. We decided that we wanted to catch those people. I remember about five of us sat out on the tennis courts late at night, so we could catch the perpetrators. I remember those nights, laying there, trying to stay quiet, looking at the stars. One night some people broke in at the fence by the tennis courts. We snuck over and tossed their belongings over the fence, then went into the front door of the office and called the police. We were laughing so hard. I don’t actually remember if they were caught. I guess that wasn’t that important to the story for me.

Fast forward another few years, and I remember being a pool manager with Michelle Lia (poor Michelle). At that point the characters of the pool were younger than me…Kelly Evans, Jeff Lietz, the Hatfields, the Wenkes (forgetting so many people here). We thought it would be okay to have a guard party. Bad idea…think Caddy Shack. Anyway, the police were called (shocking!!). By that time in the summer, I had a regular relationship with the police because some of the adult nights had gotten pretty rowdy. I was taking the trash out as they pulled into the parking lot. Just as I assured them that I had everything under control, Chris Straka appeared on the three meter board with no suit on. AWESOME! I’m pretty sure we broke up the party after that. But we’ll always have Chris swinging around on the three meter.

That’s it for today. Tune in next week for the last of February remembrances.