One of my most persistent memories of Zayer's Pool in Village Green was the one time that I rode my bike up there to go swimming and the entire time this little Cuban Bow was screaming "Mira, Pappi! Mira!" (Sorry, I do not have the upside-down exclamation point that should be at the front of these imperatives.)
The kid would then do something so incredibly lame (like dunking under) at which point the kid's dad would go back to his book and the kid would start screaming again.
I have been thinking of this today because as soon as I got home I finished the last of the stuff that needed to be finished after my trip. Saga, could she talk, would be screaming "Mira, Pappi!" at me constantly. She is so needy now that we are back home. It will take her a couple days to get used to being alone all day again.
Saga has been incredibly clingy. As a matter of fact, she is sitting at my side right now demanding my attention.
I hope you are having a great day!
Don Bergquist - 19-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado
3 comments:
Zayers Pool. You choose to remember it as a lovely place. I remember that the entire school of Village Green Elementary went over to "learn to swim" classes. Then, after several years, Mom, and a couple other parents got together and essentially prosecuted Mr. & Mrs. Zayer for failing to provide the skills required to "pass" the children in the swimming categories that they claimed to be able to complete. The Zayers were stripped of their ability to certify Amrican Red Cross Swimming classes, and Village Green quit going to the pool.
Strangely, I do not remember calling it lovely. As a matter of fact, I remember a number of things about that place that I hated.
The pool was always over-chlorinated. The wading pool was always disgusting. More like a cesspool than a wading pool. The "Cabana Clubhouse" was supposed to be open for the use of the pool members but rarely was because it was always either rented-out as storage space or inexplicably padlocked.
The grass on the embankment around the pool was usually a mess of crabgrass or creeping Charlie; there were huge piles of fire ants; and the playground was a combination of exposed coral and mud. The free playground on the other side of the water treatment facility was better kept. Until Zayer argued that the city could quit maintaining the playground because he was building one that would be open to the public. Once that was done and the thing started falling into disrepair, he built the barb-wire-topped ten-foot chain-link fence around "his" playground.
Nope, you see... I haven't forgotten the bad parts. I just don't dwell on them.
Oh!
But they did have Candy Cigarettes for a penny and candy neclaces for a nickel.
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