the aquatic park and other ironies

I grew up only ten minutes from where our little apartment sits. But I was a “country kid.” Jude is a “town kid” – and surprisingly that makes A LOT of difference in his life and in mine. You see, growing up several of my friends were “mall rats” by winter and “pool rats” by summer (including Jarod). I was the only kid I knew with a private pool in their backyard. I was also the only kid I knew that didn’t take swimming lessons or go to “Munice” (The Municiple swimming pool) from 12-7 almost every day during the summer. As a small child I would sometimes grow jealous of these endless hours of freedom they all seemed to enjoy, but for the most part, I was perfectly content to play “marine-biologist” alone with 120 fishing tackle worms and several canning jars.

When I got my driver’s license and could have driven into “Munice” I never did – because even as a fit cross-country runner I knew my scratched, bruised and farmer tanned legs did not belong in line with the hundred other teen legs lying at the edge of the pool in perfect shaven symmetry. So last year - when Jarod suggested Jude and I get a season pass to the “new pool” (8 year old aquatic park that replaced munice) - I baulked at the idea. The Aquatic park is only 12 blocks away but we would just drive out to my parent’s pool!

Mid-July amid 110 degree weather I broke down. It just wasn’t working to drive 10 minutes in an un-air-conditioned car down dirt roads to get to a pool where I had to take off the solar cover, scrape out the bugs, water mom’s plants, talk to all of the guys and get sucked into the general time-warp that is their house. By the time we would get home Jude would have missed his nap and we would be hotter than when we started.

I bought our season passes this year in March. Now, at least twice a week, we head down to the aquatic park at 1:00 where we meet up with some friends and he is napping (or thinking in his room) by 3:00…nice and cool.

Now the ironies of this are – I AM IN NO CONDITION to be seen at a public pool and I would give anything to have my high school legs back! I also can't believe I never got to enjoy the public pool experience for myself - I went straight in as an old woman annoyed with all the noise and nakedness! Second – we ride our bikes there – something I didn’t learn to do until I was 13 because we had no good place to ride in the country (so I am not very graceful at it). I never in all my life thought I'd be riding my bike anywhere habitually - much less 9 months pregnant in a bathing suit! SUCH a HUMBLING experience!

There is really nothing about this twice-weekly routine, of scantily clad crowds, listening to loud music, that appeals to my personality, but I wouldn’t trade the ritual of seeing my “pool rat” so happy for anything… well maybe for 120 fishing tackle worms to put in his baby pool – where he spends the rest of his afternoons.





Oh and another irony… Jude had his first friend sleep over on Friday night and it brought back so many memories of my parents tirelessly hosting my once-a-month sleepovers for years. I thought it would be a lot of work but the boys were great and I found myself thinking, as I listened to them laughing in their room ‘til almost midnight, “I can do this for the next 15 years.” Now if we have a girl that may be another story...