Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Inside Outside USA

Oh, right. That blog thing. So, I was thinking the other day about swimming pools, and how I used to go to the swimming pool basically everyday when I was a young girl, living in the wonderful state of Virginia. My sisters and I would walk to the nearby community pool, and frequently we'd sing "Hey hey, we're the Monkees!" as we walked with some of our neighbor friends. Those summers were fantastic. Some of the highlights from going to that pool were as follows:

1. That time when Cash scraped her nose on the bottom of the pool.
2. That time when I scraped my nose on the bottom of the pool from diving in the shallow end. The chlorinated blood made the wound look fluorescent. That scar would appear for years afterward whenever I got a tan.
3. Speaking of tan, I was. I know! Can you believe it? I have proof in the form of pictures. I was so tan, and my hair was slightly sun bleached. Banana's was super bleached blonde.
4. When the ice cream truck would come around, I usually bought Fun Dip. There was a brief stint when for some reason we were into those Garbage Pail Kids cards, so I actually got those a couple of times.
5. One of my most embarrassing moments as an 8-year-old was getting faked out by one of the lifeguards and jumping in the pool too early. Each hour they had 15 minutes of adult swim only, and we would line up waiting to jump in the pool when they blew the whistle. Yeah, he totally faked me out. How embarrassing. I really was embarrassed for months after that.
6. Cash's lips turning blue. Yikes! Foreboding.
7. Swimming pool acrobatics. It was always fun to do flips, handstands, and even the splits in the pool.
8. I had this really awesome zip up jumper that I would wear all the time over my swimming suit. It was the coolest. Banana and Cash had similar jumpers, and we all planned to wear them at picture day at school, so basically, it's the best picture ever.

We also had some great trees in our yard that were good for climbing and swaying as we stood on the branches and sang "Surfin' USA." How can you beat surfing in trees?

Growing up in the 80s at the pool was so much fun. I am so glad that my parents felt safe enough to let us go off and play by ourselves, and even at the swimming pool. I feel like most kids miss out on that these days.

3 comments:

Mellissa said...

I agree that growing up in the 80s was a lot of fun. My parents let me go places by myself all the time, but there's no way I'd let my kids do similar things, so yes, they do miss out on that.

I really think we all need proof of your tan. Otherwise, it's kind of hard to believe. ;)

dub said...

Yeah, you totally should post that school picture of you when you were super-tan. It's pretty striking.

I never got a good tan when I was a child. In fact, the only time in my life I've ever been tan was when I lived in Ecuador for a year and a half. And the tan lines were hideous.

tearese said...

I can't believe how much we were allowed to do as a kid..I remember walking up and down the street in my swimming suit all dayn (even though I never really learned to swim),playing in the wading pool in the yard, going to the store, the elementary school, riding my bike around the block or up the street, all unsupervised. I would NEVER let my kids go around like that. Heck, I remember when Missy and I became friends I was only 4 and a half, and I went between her house and mine all alone..and we live near Center Street, which has accidents all the time. What were my parents thinking?
I had a jumper that I thought was the bomb as well, but Kiera has told me that she always thought my clothes were ugly when I was a kid, so what do I know?