I had swam in the Atlantic Ocean as
a child before coming to Texas. I remember being at the Bath House at
White Rock Lake during the summer, but all my sources say the Lake was closed
to swimming in 1953.
I learned to swim in the Dallas city
pool at Casa View Elementary School. It was a small pool, only three feet
deep, but had lots of teenage volunteers to teach you how to swim.
Later on in North Oak Cliff, my
wife, Carolyn, taught swimming lessons at the pool at Lida Hooe Elementary
School at Hampton and 12th Street in North Oak Cliff. Even later, that's
where my two children, Rachel and Adam, learned to swim also.
A couple of times my parents took me
to Vickery Pool, 740 Greenville Avenue EM-1-4987, just north of Park
Lane. Vickery was an unincorporated pool north of Dallas. The whole
park was on a slope with plenty of shade.
In 1957 Harry Stone Recreation Center
at the corner of Milmar and Ferguson Road, just behind Casa View Methodist
Church opened. During the summer they had "free-swim" from 8 am
- 10 am. Us neighborhood kids were always there, leaving red-eyed when they
kicked us out of the pool. We always thought they used "us" to
stir up the chlorine disinfectant chemicals. A big treat after swimming
was either a "frozen" Zero candy bar or an Eskimo Pie.
I earned my Red Cross Junior
Lifesaving Badge at the Garland Community Pool near Duck Creek on Garland Road.
I earned my Senior Lifesaving Badge
at the swimming pool at Old City Park near downtown.
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