There are very few constants in life, but I think I’ve found one of them. Our neighborhood pool. Went over there this afternoon as a laundry avoidance measure, and looking around, I realized really nothing has changed in 20 years.
The boys still try to impress the girls by doing backflips off the high dive. (OK, I’m surprised they still *have* the high dive.)
The girls still pretend to ignore the boys.
The agony of the whistle sounding adult swim. The utter glee when it sounds again. (I still feel like I’m getting away with something when I’m in the pool and all the kids are out.)
The slide.
Sandwiches and chips brought from home for lunch.
At least one little old lady doing the sidestroke trying to keep her hair out of the water.
Mom and Dad trying to teach the little ones to swim.
Honestly, the only things that have changed is the addition of a basketball hoop on one side of the pool, and Domino’s actually has an advert with “pool specials” at the office. (I swear, it used to be like pulling teeth to get a pizza delivered to the pool.)
I think I’ll have to spend more time there this summer.
July 14th, 2007 - 8:16 pm
Well, the local pool here–Ben Lomond pool in Ben Lomond Park (also home to soccer fields, a wooden playground, pavilions, and formerly bumper boats and mini-speedboats) used to be the local public pool, with snack bar, kiddie pool, and plenty of lounge chairs, as well as two water slides (the sedate Hydrotube, and the steep Hydrowhip.) $2.50/visit, or 20 visits for $40–something like that, anyway–and kids could come without parents. Now, it’s Splashdown Waterpark, a large waterpark with a Lazy River, many water slides, all that jazz, it’s at least $12/person to get in, no kids w/o an adult, and well, no “local pool” anymore. At least the soccer fields are still there. :P
July 14th, 2007 - 8:27 pm
Wow, that kinda blows. Ours is an annual fee, $6 (I think) for a guest, and you can even get a weekly/monthly/season guest pass if you’ve got visitors that are going to be there for a while. Kids 8 - 12 can go by themselves as long as they’ve passed the swim test.
Probably helps that it’s not super huge, so you don’t get big mobs of insane kids wandering around.
July 15th, 2007 - 1:55 am
Also, I believe it’s the same Good Humor driver from 20 years ago…
July 15th, 2007 - 11:06 am
Things I wonder that I didn’t 20+ years ago… Does the GH guy sell pot? ;)