If you’ve ever wanted to step back in time and into your childhood, join the pool club where you spent your summers as a kid.
It will be a surreal experience.
Growing up, summer was our pool club.
We were members there from the time I was 1 until I was 14, and those 10 summer weeks every year defined the carefree days of my childhood and early adolescence.
Starting at age 5, I practiced every morning, rain or shine, with the swim team.
I made friends and “frenemies” (sometimes on the same day, with the same people) on the playground.
I learned to do pikes and flips and back dives off the diving board.
I tried to convince my mom (unsuccessfully, I might add) that a frozen Snickers from the snack bar was a better snack choice than the fruit she packed.
I took tennis lessons and practiced my free throws on the basketball courts.
I felt the excitement of summer crushes. And the pain of a broken heart.
I looked forward to going to the pool club every day during the summer. And during the fall, winter and spring, I would count down the days until the pool club would open again.
But once I entered my teens and had friends who drove to the beach, and a boyfriend who had a pool in his backyard, the pool club wasn’t as exciting as it had once been.
Spending the day making frienship bracelets, rounding up teams for tennis raquet baseball, and playing in the pool didn’t sound as enticing anymore as going on a date to the beach, taking a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard or making some extra spending money at a part-time job.
And since I was the youngest of my parents’ four kids (and therefore the last one to really take advantage of the pool club) my parents decided not to renew our 13-year-long membership the summer I was 15.
We may have left the pool club, but the pool club did not leave me so easily.
Nostalgia can be very powerful, and as the years went by, especially during the summer, I longed for those summers at the pool club more and more.
When my brother and his family re-joined the club a few years ago, I was so happy that his kids would have the opportunity to fall in love with summer in the same way we did.
And so very often, memories of those wonderful summers would creep into my dreams.
So when the opportunity presented itself for my husband and I (and actually, Audrey and her family, too) to join our old pool club again this summer, I readily accepted it.
It was really strange walking back through the main gates of the club. Very little had changed about the club iteself, and I half expected to see all the old familiar faces.
It literally felt as if I had walked out the same gates the day before, and was walking back through them again the next day.
Except it was a span of 12 years, not one night!
When I jumped into the water and then came to the surface, I almost expected to see Jane (my best childhood friend), Veronica, Meredith, Morgan and Brandi waiting in line for their turn on the diving board.
And even though I’ve changed (when did the skinny blonde girl in the locker room mirror get hips, boobs and brown roots!?), I picture all the people I haven’t seen in 12 years just as they were when I last saw them.
I probably wouldn’t even recognize most of them if they were standing in line with me at the snack bar.
So I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with the place where I learned to swim, first jumped off a diving board, and perfected my backhand in tennis.
And I am looking forward to meeting new people. And being surprised at how others have grown up.
I can now share these wonderful moments with my nieces and nephews, and watch them grow to love our special pool club, too.
It will be like old times, but it will be a new experience.
With new memories, new faces and new adventures.
And I don’t even have to step back in time!
That is so awesome! It must have been a wonderful feeling. I felt that way when I walked through my old university just a few weeks ago- gives you a warm feeling, a very familiar one 🙂
I belonged to a pool club too. I remember spending my whole summers there. You brought back some great memories.
Great post! Sometimes I really miss those carefree summer days!
Growing up in India’s heat could be unbearable at times so we had an arrangement with an hotel to let us swim there every afternoon. It was only my brothers and myself but we RULED that pool. You brought back some great memories that I had forgotten. Thanks!!!!
we belonged to a pool club too, i remember swimming for hours on end with my sister and our friends and then coming back and playing for hours in our swimsuits…fun post…
This is so wonderful!! My childhood at the pool club was just like yours! I know it was expensive for my parents, but I am so thankful for those memories. I’m just getting to the point where my kids can swim, and love going to the pool. And I have some good friends who love going with their kids, and I am so excited!
I love your old pictures, too. Here’s to doing the things we loved as a child with our own kids!
I love the red bathing suit with sneakers! Very snazzy!
Swimming during the summer is one of my best memories from my childhood- and hope it is for my boys as well!
Oh, Jane! This reminds me of my summers spent by the poolside! Another lovely post! 🙂 Thanks!
PS. I love the pics!!!
Oh, I want to join the pool club 🙂
such a touching post. we wew also members of a pool growing up. this brought back lots of memories
What fun!
I was just reminiscing about summers past on Sunday. While we didn’t have a pool club (I wasn’t aware that such things existed!), every summer my step-mother would have an elaborate schedule set up for us. I am quite certain that she spent hours in our last months of school planning and saving money so she could take us out “somewhere” almost every other day. Whether it was rollerblading in the park, swimming at the pool, or heading out of town to visit a local garden, we were busy… and it was fun. I should really thank her for all that she did for us for those years – we had so much fun, and she is such an inspiration for me. I hope that I can plan summers just as exciting as she did!
You girls have just brought pools of memories flooding into my head (puns intended)—my sister Jamee and I practically lived at the Savannah City Pool–we learned pikes as well, we had underwater tea parties, we ran races under water. When we were there, at the pool, the “junk” at home was 100 miles away. Jamee took care of me (all of 19 months older, lol) and I threatened to beat up anyone who dared look at her sideways (that was our unspoken deal).
Thanks Jane, Audrey, I’m going to put in yet another plea for childhood pictures–one of these days….xoxoxo
We had a membership at this little beach club! Oh, those were some good childhood memories!!
Ours was Crestwood. We LOVED IT! As my sister said, we practically lived there. I love the term “frenimies”– that is SO true! Great post and great idea!
You both have great legs.. ;p really.
Thanks, Miss Jane–might I add I count you, your sister, your momma, among the cooler, nicer and more genuine characters I’ve hooked arms with on my skip down life’s path! xo ~Stacey
PS–Iff it may ring odd to you my name comes up Nicoal, I wasn’t thinking when I submitted it to my account that it wouldn’t make sense! The first two letters of my children’s names spell Nicoal!
Nicole, Cody, Alexander
Love the post! It brought me back to the pool I used to hang out it everday. It too had a snack bar, but the great thing was you could charge things to “your”(parents) account. I can’t tell you how many orders of fries and a coke I charged, but needless to say, by the end of the summer, we had to have a BIG faimly meeting about charging things at the snack bar, hahahahaha. What were they(the club) thinking when they let a 9 year old sign for food. I love those old days of summer. We have talked about joining the local pool this summer and I think we will!!!
summertime memories are the best! What’s almost as much fun is re-living those memories through our children.
Except for the location, I think we grew up at the same club. I was dropped off at 9:00 for swim team, then tennis clinic at 11:00. After unpacking our picnic lunch and thermos of lemonaide, we spent some time looking for tennis balls, errantly hit down the hillside. Then back to the pool for several hours of marco polo and sharks and minnows. At about 4:00 mom would show up and we’d do it all over the next day. I’m wondering why I have to schedule camps and activities for my kids?? Thanks for sharing your memories.
I think we all miss those days. . .ahhh. Hey, I forgot to add I love the new header! 🙂
perfect. i loved this post. perfect!!!!!!!!
loove the new header. i need an overhaul myself 🙂
i’ve never been able to open my eyes under water.
heck, i can’t even swin what am i talking about?
🙂
swim.
My husband loves chatting about his swimming days and how he used to shave his legs. I remember when I used to shave my legs regularly, too!
When we loved in NJ and MI (from birth to age 16) we always belonged to a swim club. It was a terrific place to hang out at any age! I was on swimteam and grew up to be a lifeguard and WSI(water safety instructor) in college. I am back in college again but no swim club on the west coast. At least not ones we could afford.
Audrey~three boys under 3. May God Bless you and give you tons of energy. I love having boys. Just not when they get macho around their friends and McHub endorses the language by his silence.
I loved this post! Thanks for bringing back my childhood memories even though we never belonged to a pool. This post reminded me of my own good times in my neighborhood.
🙂
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