There were two naturally fed pools that I have swam in that were the subject of nightmares as a child and continue to haunt me on certain nights.
2) Lake Winnepesaukah
in Rossville, Georgia. I only went there
a couple of times as a smaller child and whether my memories are true or not,
they add to my nightmares. There is a
log flume there that my cousins, Billy and Jerry, called the tunnel of love. They
told me that there were cotton mouths in the water and that lovers have died in
the tunnel of love of snake bite. To make it worse I think they had a pool that
had lake water in it, which again was full of nasty lake creatures, including
cottonmouths.
3) Since I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area I
had the luxury of being able to swim in the Pacific Ocean (home of the
aforesaid Shamu (Orca) whale, killer sharks and deadly purple man-o-war jelly
fish. Sometimes the beaches would be
purple with all the jelly fish and you could not enjoy yourself there. Plus the
water was freezing and giant waves beat against rocks! My other natural
swimming choices, the Suisun
Bay that we locals called “the river”.
This wonderful piece of water was one of those where you could dip a
finger in it and come back with a bone.
Yikes! At one time a dolphin
became internationally famous as he swam from the ocean through the bays and
into the Sacramento River. Speaking of the Sac River…ah the summers at
the river, they were fun, if you didn’t think about what the hell was lurking
in there! One summer there was a hippo loose in the river. Ever seen a hippo in the water. Go to the San Francisco Zoo to find out why
you do not want to swim with a hippo.
4)
The Pittsburg High School pool. (That is not it in the picture below.) Ah, as last a pool. I spent every summer day there that I could
for 25 cents per day and four mile walk from my home (each way). No natural enemies in
there, only Coach Lee. He loved to make
comments about your splashes into the pool after a jump from the high
dive. Thanks to Coach Lee, who called me
a whale at 10 years old (I was not fat, I just made a big splash). Coach was not thin by the way. Anyway, that
tag has stuck in my mind forever and I may have stopped jumping off the high
dive after that!
5) Lake Anza, was a wondeful place to swim on a hot summer. Located in the Oakland/Berkeley hills, wonderful. Except when you can't make it out to the floating dock and almost drown.
6) Now I live on the west coast of the East Coast, in the Tampa Bay area, again surrounded by natural waters, lovely bathwater temperature waters, full of icky looking fish, sharks, rays, jelly fish, etc. And don’t forget all the hot coeds that flock to our warm white sugar sand beaches in tiny bikinis.
So I thank God
for my clean little pool, where I can swim 100 or more laps, around and around,
I can put my face in the water, assured that no one has peed in it, no
dangerous creatures would even want to be in that pool and if there were, I
could see them, and I can get in and out of it 100 times or more a day if I
want without anyone yelling at me to “get in or stay out”. There are no grates
to let in scary water creatures, no one to call me a whale if I chose to make a
splash or two, and no one to be concerned that I don’t have a bikini body. I love my little pool.
Dream Pool below
