Sheridan pool was the place to be during the summer. The large pool is always cold since it's heated by the sun and never seemed to get warm enough. But still we would go there as often as we could during the summer. Just ten cents got you into the changing room where you could either leave your clothes on the floor, put them in a bag to carry to the side of the pool, or rent a basket for an additional twenty five cents.
We generally pitched in and rented a basket for our shoes (we wore our swim suits to the pool), then we carried our towels through the showers (you were supposed to shower before swimming, but lets face it, no one does) and down to the guard who would check your feet for fungus - you had to lift your foot and spread your toes for them.
Once past the foot checker we would lay out our towels to claim our spot. Then you had to do the test - swimming across the length of the pool so you could swim in the deep end. Sometimes we would wait and do that later in the day, and sometimes we would do it right away. The benefit of waiting was that you didn't have to worry about the guards changing place.
If you got too cold you had choices, you could either lay on the hot cement or go into the 'baby pool'. It was only about two feet deep so the sun warmed it up faster - or did it - rumor was that it was warmer because all the babies peed in it.
I didn't care - it was warmer.
Gary was a life guard at Sheridan for a while, it was nice to not have to test since he knew I could swim, but it wasn't any fun getting yelled at by your brother.
It wouldn't be until many years later that I appreciated the job of a life guard. While in my Junior year of high school I took life guard training as part of my gym class requirements. It was the best thing I could have done for myself. Besides the fact that I had chlorine running through my veins after all of the years of competitive swimming, it gave me a chance to have a locked locker for two years - giving me a place to keep a change of clothes and bathroom items. We had limited shower time at home so I used the ones at the high school to shower daily. I loved long, hot showers and since I had a key to the locker room I could take one every morning before school.
Secondly, there was a small bed in the guard room of the women's locker area. It was perfect for a nap or if the weather had become so bad outside that riding my bike home would be impossible. So there were, on many occasions, nights that I didn't go home, and instead spent the night sleeping in that room. It was safe, warm, and quite. The entire building would be locked at night and no one ever checked the locker room office. My bike would be right next to me and I could shower the next morning and no one would know any better.
But most importantly, it was for the most part an easy job - just sit in the chair and watch to make sure everyone followed the rules. No running, no swimming in the deep end without passing a test and most importantly, no peeing in the pool.
To keep from daydreaming we had to change position every 15 minutes. We would rotate from deep end, to shallow, and then to locker room. It made the night go fast.
I know there are rumors that they put a dye in the water to see if someone pees, but the truth is, from the height of the chairs - it is very obvious. The color is undeniable - and easy to spot. The twist here is that we rarely said anything to the offender. Mainly because it's too embarrassing for everyone. But we would keep a list of constant offenders and if it got to be too often we would pull them aside and let them know we had seen an offense in the past and would be keeping an eye on them, if they did it again they would be asked to stay away. They almost always denied doing anything so disgusting, and after being talked to we rarely ever saw a repeat offender.
Every now and then you'd get someone who needed first aid, I hated those days because it came with paperwork and reports.
I only had to call for the ambulance once. A young boy had chickened out mid dive and ended up slipping off the diving board. In doing so he hit his head on the way down and needed to be rescued from the deep end, backboard and all. It was scary after the fact, but while we were rescuing we just went into what I could best describe as auto pilot. Following all the steps we had trained to do.
It was a thing of beauty, right out of the pages of "Baywatch" - Mitch would be so proud!
I saw the boy go in and waited for him to surface. When he didn't I blew the warning signal on my whistle, dove in for the boy while my partner got the back board and cleared the pool.
I brought the boy to the surface and glided him to the side of the pool. We strapped him to the board before helping to guide him to the shallow end where it would be easier to carry him out. We lifted him to the side of the deck just as the ambulance crew arrived. We stepped aside and answered questions.
After the ambulance left we had more paperwork to fill out and a good story to tell our friends the next day, a better story than who we saw peeing in the pool!
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