When I was young the month of May felt like the longest month of the year as I counted down the days until the beginning of summer vacation. I really did like school, but looked forward to sleeping in a bit, not having to get dressed up every day and to all those fun summer activities that filled my days.
I spent most summers in my early years with my maternal grandparents, playing and sharing adventures with my Aunt, who was my age and like a sister to me. I was an only child of divorced parents and she was the youngest of six children whose siblings were much older than her, so we were fortunate to have each other (although we may not have fully realized it at the time).
One of our frequent summer activities was Swimming. We would roll up our bathing suits in a towel, get some money from my grandmother for snacks and drinks and begin the 30-minute walk from my Aunt’s house to the Plan 12 Community Pool in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The pool opened at noon and we were anxiously waiting in line for the gates to open.
We would dash into the dressing room to put on our bathing suits and check in our belongings with the attendant. She would give us a round metal token with our bin number on it that we pinned to our bathing suits. After we checked our belongings in we would walk (or should I say run) through the cold-water showers that led out to the huge pool. Yikes! that water sure was cold.
The pool had a shallow end that gradually sloped down to a deep end. The deep end was sectioned off with floating ropes at about four feet. There were three lifeguards, a low diving board, a high diving board and a sliding board. Plus, there was a separate baby pool with a fountain. Something for every age and level of swimmer or diver to enjoy.
We enjoyed splashing and dunking games with our friends and doing hand stands on the bottom of the pool in the shallow end. Several times throughout the day everyone had to get out of the pool so that the lifeguards could conduct a pool check. The checks were conducted more often when the pool was crowded.
When we got hungry or thirsty, we walked to the snack stand that was located across the street from the pool. We would bring our treats back to the pool to a grassy area where we laid on our towels to dry out or just take a break. We would mingle with our friends and neighbors and talk about our summer adventures and activities. Then, we would go back in the pool again!
The pool closed at 6:00 P.M. for kids our age, so we had to go home like it or not! That 30-minute walk back home seemed so much longer than our walk to the pool, and I remember being so tired after all that physical activity that I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back home. I was always feeling starved and hardly waiting for dinner, and I fell asleep early and slept well after a full day of swimming!
The Plan 12 Pool: Courtesy of The Postcard Collection of Mark DiVecchio
The Plan 12 Community Pool was financed entirely by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation and was opened in 1928. By 1963, the pool was outdated and in need of major repairs so a new pool was built to replace it. In recent years due to financial issues in Aliquippa, the pool could not be maintained and was dismantled. 😢
Photo by Raining Huang on Unsplash
