How about some reminiscing about the worst pools you ever were forced to work out and/or compete in ??
Our old pool was 20 yards long, with gutters and the deck was about 2 feet above that. The water level was always low, so it was like ocean swimming every day. There were no starting blocks and the "lane lines" were nylon cord with a plastic bobber every 3 feet or so. The water was always quite warm to accomodate the family swims and lessons that were also sharing the pool during the day.
Since goggles had not yet been invented and the only antiseptic method was chlorine (lots of it), we would have those chlorine "light halos" until the next day. The kick-boards were solid, varnished wood and they doubled as pull-buoys. There were no fins or hand paddles.
Thank the higher power of your choice that we had a GREAT coach.
Oh, did I mention that they used to beat us with knives???
Bert
Parents
Former Member
There are quite a few pools in New England that qualifies for this thread. One that comes to mind (with some fondness because we don't swim there anymore) is the outdoor Cambridge MDC pool near Magazine Street. (Right near " magazine beach" on the banks of the Charles to old-time Cantabrigians). This pool is 55 yards long (we did wonder if we could legally break some of the 110/220 world records). This pool has no lane lines, no painted lines on the bottom of the pool, is 3.5 feet "deep" and no markings at the wall. Our ever enterprising coach Rob Berry imported some lane lines and cleverly rigged a towel at the wall so that we didn't knock heads. We used the lifeguard stand at the side as a visual que to start our backstroke turn. The pool had a "slow" leak so that they had to refill it over night. That meant, that we had a echilly experience getting in each morning especially on those early morning workouts in late August. The lockerooms (no lockers just benches and bathroom) reminded me of a boilerroom on a slow freighter to China--only not so clean.
There are quite a few pools in New England that qualifies for this thread. One that comes to mind (with some fondness because we don't swim there anymore) is the outdoor Cambridge MDC pool near Magazine Street. (Right near " magazine beach" on the banks of the Charles to old-time Cantabrigians). This pool is 55 yards long (we did wonder if we could legally break some of the 110/220 world records). This pool has no lane lines, no painted lines on the bottom of the pool, is 3.5 feet "deep" and no markings at the wall. Our ever enterprising coach Rob Berry imported some lane lines and cleverly rigged a towel at the wall so that we didn't knock heads. We used the lifeguard stand at the side as a visual que to start our backstroke turn. The pool had a "slow" leak so that they had to refill it over night. That meant, that we had a echilly experience getting in each morning especially on those early morning workouts in late August. The lockerooms (no lockers just benches and bathroom) reminded me of a boilerroom on a slow freighter to China--only not so clean.
