This photo shows about the north one-third of the primary swimming pool I frequented as a youngster. It has been totally removed and dirt fill placed. This is where my sister and I attended swimming lessons every summer along with a couple of bus loads of other kids from our school area.
Note the diving boards at 3-feet, 5-feet and 10-feet on the main tower. Next to it was the skinny tower holding boards for the dare-devils at 15, 25 and 35 feet. Kids were not allowed on that tower.
In the background is a grandstand built by the WPA for the baseball field shown. Mickey Mantle played there several times when playing in the old K-O-M league. (Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri)
When I went to school, swimming was part of the curriculum. Is that unique to Alaska?
Not unique - the same used to be the case down here in New Zealand.
These days swimming is not compulsary curriculum, and the regulations for water quality testing etc have become so onerous that many schools have chosen to close their pools.
And they wonder why we have seen a year on year rise in drownings - go figure !
The swimming lessons had to be at a city pool as there is no school district with a pool within 80 miles of where I grew up. For many farm kids, the lessons were viewed as a treat that got us out of our usual farm work and a chance to see our friends in the Summer. I passed through every level and completed the Junior Life Saving lessons at age 13. There are two people alive and well today because of what I learned about rescues.
I learned to swim in the same pond the horses drank out of. Swam every summer day of my childhood and ultimately became a rescue swimmer for the Navy. I never really got used to pool water stinging my eyes. Still prefer a pond to this day.
While I did almost all of my swimming in ponds or the Flint River I did get to go to the public pool on occasion. The county where we lived (Lee County, Georgia) operated a canning plant right next to the swimming pool. My grandmother would load up her car with vegetables and Mason jars and head to the plant. My sister and I got to go along and swim while she canned the veggies. I can't imagine, now, what it must have been like. 90 degrees ambient temperature and then add to that all the heat and steam from the canning plant. All the while I was swimming in that nice, cool (probably only 80 degrees) water while she worked away.
Andy
