Pools

I love to swim. I learned how to swim at my dad's mom's house. Grandma had a nice pool in her back yard and whenever we visited we wanted to swim. Mom would remind us to bring our swimming trunks and a towel. We always remembered the swim trunks but usually we forgot the towel. Grandma had a green fiberglass covering over the patio next to the deep end of the pool. This had two built in tables both were made of cement benches and cement table top with a rough pebble finish, one was long and could seat ten or sometimes more depending on the size of the cousin sitting at the table, the other was a perfect square with four cement stools stationed at each side. The smaller table was our favorite table to sit at because we were not being elbowed or squished by everyone at the long table. There was also a built in grill that was used to cook hot dogs and hamburgers. Grandma had a few pool chairs that folded up and other loungers that could be laid out or folded up both at the feet and the backrest. These chairs were the favorite because we could fold the feet rest and the back rest up so that it looked like a square missing the top. The older girls would lay out on these chairs to get a tan. The younger cousins would pester these girls with water or towel snapping just for sport. The pool had an electric cover with rollers that would roll along a course set by metal tracks that went down the side of the pool. If there were no adults around we would roll the cover over the top of people still in the pool. I don't think we ever thought about possible consequences of our actions and luckily no one ever got hurt. One day while we were out swimming in Grandma's pool I went to get out at the side of the pool where the metal runner was for the wheels of the pool cover. I put both hands down on the metal and all of a sudden I was stuck to the rail. My body was shaking and it felt like a million tiny pricks of electricity were terrorizing my body. The rail was like a magnet and I was stuck. I couldn't yell or talk and my body was convulsing. I didn't know what to do. With all the strength I could muster I pushed away from the wall with my legs and got free from the electrical trap. I quickly got out of the pool and ran to my dad for help. My body was not hurt and there was no visible injury or lasting pain from my encounter but dad got my uncle Clifton and they quickly checked the motor and the wires leading to the motor. Clifton was more skeptical so he went and touched the metal rail that I was claiming had me stuck. When he touched it he was shocked and quickly removed his hand and yelled at everyone in the pool to get out while they figured out what had caused the problem. They soon figured it out. Some wire had pulled away from its insulation and was touching that particular rail. Dad and Clifton fixed the problem and I and the cousins went right back to swimming. When the family moved from Lehi, Utah to Duchesne, Utah the city had a pool that was open in the summer and mom quickly signed us all up for lessons. We went every morning to our lessons. At the time it was my older sister Chelle, me, then My younger brother Sam and my younger younger brother Matthew. Matthew was too young for lessons but Chelle, Sam and I would walk the two blocks to the lessons with mom carrying or walking slowly with Matthew in tow. She would watch us as we learned and talk with the other mothers that were there. In the afternoons we could go back to the pool and play. We went to that pool so often that all of our dirty blond hair turned green from the chlorine. The pool in Duchesne was fenced in and had an entrance and check in area at the front with a teenager manning the entrance. One had to present their pass or pay a dollar to get in. Once the pass was presented girls went right and boys went left through a dark locker room where we put our sandals and towels. The locker rooms opened to the shallow end of the pool. The pool was shaped like a giant letter L with the long part of the letter having the shallow end and gradually getting deeper as it proceeded to the corner then the short end of the L was where the high and low diving boards were. The depth was twelve feet and as I got braver my goal was to jump from the high dive and touch the bottom. Mom was brave enough that most afternoons she would let Chelle, Sam and I go by ourselves. Matthew was usually taking an afternoon nap. Chelle was nine, I was seven and Sam was five. She told us a specific time when we had to be back home and off we went. There were teenage lifeguards and it was safe. We swam, jumped, played with each other and with our friends who were with us. We dared each other to jump off the high dive. I had no fear and would climb up and jump off without hesitation. I would watch the older kids doing flips, cannonballs, can openers and all sorts of other tricks. Some would go for the biggest splashes or the perfect dives. After watching them I decided I would try a flip from the high dive. I got up to the top and I jumped, tucked and spun. I went around once then a second time and I didn't realize the water would come quite so quickly. I opened up to start the entry process and landed smack on my tummy with my arms and legs wide. I slapped the water so hard that I sat on the surface for a second longer than should have been possible. The pain was excruciating and I slowly sunk into the water. I did not want to show my pain so I slowly swam to the side if the pool to climb the ladder and get out of the pool. As I rose from the water the lifeguard that was stationed next to that ladder looked at me and said, pleasantly, "Your belly is red." I slunk off to the shallow area of the pool never to return to the high dive that day. We moved from Duchesne, Utah to Ephraim, Utah and the local college had an indoor pool. We continued our lessons and got annual passes so that we could swim whenever we wanted. The biggest difference was that here when one checked in one had to use the pools swimsuits and towels. No outside swim suits allowed. All of the swim suits were blue, the school colors. The men's shorts were very short and the women's suits were all one piece. Some of the suits were so old that we would put them on and realize that they were see through and have to go back to the desk for a different suit. By this time Matthew was old enough to come with us. Amy, the newest entry into the family, was not old enough to come with us. We four, Chelle, Sam, Matthew and I would walk the half mile from our house through Snow College's campus and to the Activity Center where the pool was located. We could swim from one till four almost every afternoon. We always came away tired but we didn't care we just wanted to go back the next day. Years later and many different pools, Maggie and I were looking to buy a house in the Salt Lake Valley. We found one, not with a pool but a hot tub. We bought the house and started using the hot tub. Patrick was a baby and he loved the hot tub. We would put him in a baby suit that had a rubber tube around the middle similar to what fisherman use to get out into the rivers and lakes. He would get that on and we would sit while he swam around the hot tub. Patrick loved the water and when sister came along they both enjoyed playing in the hot tub. As I moved to another job in Las Vegas, Nevada I had a coworker who invited the family over for a fourth of July BBQ. He had a pool in the back yard and made sure all of us came prepared to swim. When we arrived our host gave us a quick tour of the house and then we went out the back door to the pool. Patrick saw the water and ran. He didn't slow down when he hit the water. Maggie and I watched and I was thinking to myself in my best chastising voice, "Oh, Patrick, you didn't have your swimming suit on yet." He was also only three and could not swim but I didn't think about that first. The hosts wife quickly jumped in the pool and pulled Patrick to safety while his parents just looked on not thinking about the danger Patrick had just found himself in. Patrick eventually learned how to swim and I am much more careful when I am around pools, especially when a three year old decides to jump in.