As far as the pool goes, they have a dry erase sandwich board for that. so....for someone who has no car and takes the trolley, this can suck. Cause you don't just walk to the pool. I did that when I was young and I ran up to the Clougherty Pool in the Doherty Park at the top of Bunkah. Here. Have some history from the always fabulous Helen O'Neil. Grab a towel and some change for the ice cream truck "Bye Mum!" and I was off till I was waterlogged or more hungry than an ice cream could satisfy.
But now? Towels, book, water, snack, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat...and the list goes on.
I set my alarm, did my morning chores, packed my bag and Tom drove me to the pool. I could walk it, it's just under a mile and a half. But *cue whiny voice* it's hhhhhooottttt and I have a bbbbaaagg.
As we pull up I say to Tom "Where are the people? Why is the pool cover on?" Tom puts on the "Down South" voice and tells me "Ah don't know".
I get out of the car and read the sandwich board "Pool closed for season due to lack of guard".
HELLO??? I was a lifeguard. Sure it was literally twenty years ago. And kids in Rocky Nook said I was the meanest lifeguard evah. But they didn't even ask.
So now I am sitting in front of the AC, pouting. I can't even do what we did when I was little and sit in the yard with the garden hose. Tom took it and all the yard tools to go help a friend at their new place.
Commie bastids!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I have no doubt you were the meanest lifeguard evah. The kids might have died of fear, but none of them drowned, dammit!
I don't know if this is considered mean or not. One day someone who I was very friendly with was coming in from his boat. I knew the whole family. Rather than row in, he was swimming, but boats are well outside the bouys (my AOR). He pretended to flounder and called out. I told him I wasn't responsible for swimmers over there. He laughed and asked "What about Barb?" Barb, his mother, who is an awesome person, has three sons. I answered that it was fine "She has two spares!"
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really mean. I just wouldn't let things get out of hand. Shove someone on the Raft, I blew the whistle. I didn't wait for it to get out of hand and I didn't play favorites. I didn't let anyone use rafts, noodles, etc. They were against the rules. Consequently, no non-swimmers got out over their heads and panicked.
It's way easily to prevent a problem than solve it.
But what made me the favorite lifeguard of Association members was I didn't allow non-members. It was a private beach. People who didn't want to pay dues were used to being able to push teenager lifeguards around (same with people who wanted to use floats, bring glass containers, alcohol, play ball, etc.) I think I was 33 the first time I was the lifeguard. And I was the assistant treasurer. I knew who was paid and who wasn't. You couldn't fool me, you couldn't bully me. And people tried both. No one succeeded. If a kid was old enough to be at the beach without adults and his parents didn't join, that was fine. I wasn't there to punish kids. In fact there were two occasions when I paid someones dues so their children wouldn't be embarrassed. But if you chose not to pay dues and thought you could still come on down, you found out pretty much at the end of the boat ramp that wasn't going to happen. There were a sign at the top of the boat ramp stating that it was a members-only beach and listing the rules. If you didn't figure it out in those 50 feet, I was there at the bottom to educate you.