I too love this! I grew up swimming in pools as well in SC- namely a public pool in the downtown area, but also plenty apartment pools, an indoor rec center pool (where I later swam competitively in high school), and on occasion a pool in some one's backyard. I learned to swim at the outdoor olympic sized public pool when I was really young and have loved swimming since. My body in water is definitely my favorite place to be (other than good sex). I have the best memories of that pool- Maxcy Gregg (named after, of course, a white Confederate general). And I've thought deeply too about the function of the public pool (this one in particular is in a interesting location that is physically between a historically black neighborhood, the university, student housing, and just beyond, up the hill, a historic white wealthy neighborhood of historic homes).
I've been able to take my son back in the summer, and he too has gotten to take swim lessons in the same pool. There are no public pools in western WA where we live- and so learning to swim has taken a lot longer for him. Here we swim in private ponds of friends, or at the lake, or if we can bear it the salish sea, which is cold all year round. But it's hard to keep those visits consistent, and this climate is just so much colder in general, the swim season is so short, we don't do enough of it.
I started writing about Maxcy Gregg public pool several years ago and bodies, when I noticed they had changed the fitting room from the once open air space with a few lockers on the edges, and benches down the middle, to enclosed stalls for changing. This upset me b/c undressing and suiting up in the 1980s/1990s open space meant I got to see female bodies of different colors and stages , and I think this was really important. Especially the old ladies who just changed w/ no qualms- to see their naked bodies with all the wrinkles. Then they'd don their flowered pastel swim caps. This seems like a crucial part of being human. Bodies, no qualms, all ages. Not hiding them behind closed doors- the unspoken intimacy and camaraderie of it all. In addition, after changing, you'd walk outside, down some concrete steps to a line of outdoor showers, to shower off before you could go into the pool. That's all changed now- the showers are indoors and all separated into stalls, so there is no communal experience of the blast of cold water showering down that indicates you are ready to swim! I would not be who I am w/out this public pool. So many sensory memories- the pool toes, the wrinkles, the chlorine, my eyes burning under water, looking around underwater, floating, learning to tread water; all the super tanned lifeguards with the mirror sunglasses! The different styles of Southern speak. The smells of sunscreen and tanning lotion! the intense summer southern sun, the turquoise of the pool water.
You've probably read the news headlines this summer too about life guard shortages, and I can't help but feel like that's just one more symptom of an eroding public life and common spaces. I wish every town had a public pool for all of the reasons you've listed here as well was what other readers have shared.
Oh Eleanor you reminded me of an aspect of the public pool that I love so much but didn't mention in this essay: the locker rooms! I too have fond (if confusing) memories of furtively glancing at older ladies changing in locker rooms, being amazed by my mother's own comfort in those spaces, and learning about women's rolls and breasts and shapes and hair and care practices. My kids really love the locker rooms at our pool now for that reason. They are both shocked by the nudity and, I think, comforted by it, and the experience has inspired so many great conversations about nudity and privacy and respect (though the binary locker rooms are also confusing to them).
I enjoyed this essay so much! I always appreciate how you take experiences - like pool visits - that can seem like just an everyday thing but are so much more, and delve right down into the history and all the thoughts and feelings that come with it.
I normally feel like it’s just me who goes down the rabbit hole of reflecting on motherhood, relationships, racism, body image and pretty much every social issue while at the pool or beach, so it’s nice to know other people do as well.
And I have been doing a great deal of this lately as I’ve just come off an extended summer; we are travelling in our caravan and during winter (currently on the tail end of it here in Australia at the moment) we visited the warmer end of the country. So my kids and I have spent A LOT of time at public pools, caravan park pools, public beaches and waterholes that as tourists we basically treat as pools, giving me a lot of time and opportunity to observe people in these places and consider all the functions they serve - to connect with both the local community and our ‘community’ of fellow travellers, respite for parents, and people of all ages practising and learning new skills.
Pools are a huge thing here in Australia - probably like California. Even lots of little towns that don’t have much more than one small school, one pub and a post office will have a public pool. And again, they are a social leveller, like yours. I often think the same thing of our public skate parks; they seem to function as the cool-weather version of the pool.
As a child our closest public pool was an hour and a half away (we lived a long way from town) but we had a small above ground pool in the backyard, one of those ones with a plastic liner and no pump, so we had to empty it out, scrub it, and refill it every week or so. But it was so worth it - my sister and I lived in it, and were always beyond thrilled when my dad would also hop in and play, and when cousins and friends would visit and jump in.
But going to the town pool, which we could actually jump into, swim to the bottom, use the diving board, get a thickshake from the kiosk and basically party on, was always the ideal.
I enjoyed this so much! You are definitely not alone in traveling down the rabbit hole. And I love all these images of finding ways to get wet. My kids are into the local skate parks when it's cooler too, and you're right, they also have such a complex culture, wrapped up in policing and profiling, but also the insistence of communal movement.
This piece is so beautiful, and evocative, and thoughtful. I’m in New Zealand and lucky to have a public outdoor pool (not actually that common here) a 5min walk from my house. I’ll be using it more this summer now that my kids are older and that hyper vigilance you mentioned is slightly less, and will go into it with this same sense of curiosity and playfulness. Really amazing writing, thank you!
I loved this article, thank you. I wish I had fully formed thoughts to reflect back about the public pool we use which has some racial dynamics that is very typical of Manhattan (let's just say many in my network don't even know about this pool which is much more 'uptown'). We had an incident last weekend where I was shocked to learn it didn't have a caregiver policy for folks to help their loved ones with disabilities, special needs, etc., and sometimes I feel like wonderful public spaces like pools used to be - could be? should be? - the place where more inclusion of all types is intentionally structured.
We lived in the Bay Area for five years, in a development with TWO pools (the Big Pool and closer to us a Small Pool) so we spent most of our pool time there, or at splash pads at several nearby parks. We did occasionally go to the large public pool (with a massive water slide) at a nearby high school, and my kids did take some swim lessons there too.
When we moved to the Midwestern sate I live in now, I was surprised to find that there weren't any standalone public pools per se; they were a partnership between the suburb and the local health club. So it was free with a health club membership or a small daily fee for the public. I couldn't help thinking it lent the pool a different vibe, but also my kids were getting older and out of the 'let's spend the whole day at the pool' vibe.
Fellow pool mom here! I love this essay so much! Since my pregnancy with my second child seven years ago, I have a re-engaged love affair with the public pool. Back then it was a nearly daily ritual of rest and buoyancy for my swelling belly, while my 8 year old son and his friends were expansive with bodily pleasure and play. That need to be embodied with him ended a several decades long, snobby rejection of crowds and chlorine. I've loved the public pool since, especially being in Oregon where summers are painfully brief. Now I have the pleasure of witnessing her growing confidence and skillfulness. The pool is a powerful childhood memory for me as well, a place of respite from the oppressive Texas heat and where my father and I played with sweet love before our relationship became complicated. Thank you for this homage to public pools and for recognizing the complex racist histories and gendered realities these spaces hold.
I love this! (And I cackled when it showed up in my inbox--I'd been thinking of a similar headline but clearly did not get around to writing it, and hadn't brought your depth of analysis about the space to my own musings.) We have a public pool in our town that I love for similar reasons. I think a lot about the importance of shared public spaces, and the pool really feels like one to me. (Though of course it's not *entirely* public--it's cheap, but there's a fee to join, and I know last summer in particular there were a lot of issues with rules being enforced inconsistently--as in, black teens being much more heavily surveilled.)
I would love to read your essay, Nancy! I think a lot about what public space means too--the constructedness of "nature" and "commons," unequal access (no neighbors who are homeless or underhoused allowed, for instance). Your comment on overpolicing/surveillance of black community members also reminds me of a great chapter from Sara Ahmed's book The Cultural Politics of Emotion that I used to teach. It's about anxiety in public space, specifically how white anxiety always receives priority over the fear or anxiety felt by black citizens in public spaces.
I lived in the East Bay Area for five years, and frequented the local pool basically attached to a high school (kids took swimming lessons and played). Our subdivision (my words, I don't know what else to call it) also had two pools, which is where we spent most of our time. The gated country club community next to us had a private pool, as part of the country club, and a huge swim team and culture around that (we did not participate, but pretty much everyone who lived in that neighborhood did). When we were looking for homes, we knew we didn't want a backyard pool, as our kids were very young, but our realtor insisted we would want a neighborhood with a pool, and she was right. I spent most of my years there at great public parks, library events, and pools. We were fortunate to have them all available to us.
I too love this! I grew up swimming in pools as well in SC- namely a public pool in the downtown area, but also plenty apartment pools, an indoor rec center pool (where I later swam competitively in high school), and on occasion a pool in some one's backyard. I learned to swim at the outdoor olympic sized public pool when I was really young and have loved swimming since. My body in water is definitely my favorite place to be (other than good sex). I have the best memories of that pool- Maxcy Gregg (named after, of course, a white Confederate general). And I've thought deeply too about the function of the public pool (this one in particular is in a interesting location that is physically between a historically black neighborhood, the university, student housing, and just beyond, up the hill, a historic white wealthy neighborhood of historic homes).
I've been able to take my son back in the summer, and he too has gotten to take swim lessons in the same pool. There are no public pools in western WA where we live- and so learning to swim has taken a lot longer for him. Here we swim in private ponds of friends, or at the lake, or if we can bear it the salish sea, which is cold all year round. But it's hard to keep those visits consistent, and this climate is just so much colder in general, the swim season is so short, we don't do enough of it.
I started writing about Maxcy Gregg public pool several years ago and bodies, when I noticed they had changed the fitting room from the once open air space with a few lockers on the edges, and benches down the middle, to enclosed stalls for changing. This upset me b/c undressing and suiting up in the 1980s/1990s open space meant I got to see female bodies of different colors and stages , and I think this was really important. Especially the old ladies who just changed w/ no qualms- to see their naked bodies with all the wrinkles. Then they'd don their flowered pastel swim caps. This seems like a crucial part of being human. Bodies, no qualms, all ages. Not hiding them behind closed doors- the unspoken intimacy and camaraderie of it all. In addition, after changing, you'd walk outside, down some concrete steps to a line of outdoor showers, to shower off before you could go into the pool. That's all changed now- the showers are indoors and all separated into stalls, so there is no communal experience of the blast of cold water showering down that indicates you are ready to swim! I would not be who I am w/out this public pool. So many sensory memories- the pool toes, the wrinkles, the chlorine, my eyes burning under water, looking around underwater, floating, learning to tread water; all the super tanned lifeguards with the mirror sunglasses! The different styles of Southern speak. The smells of sunscreen and tanning lotion! the intense summer southern sun, the turquoise of the pool water.
You've probably read the news headlines this summer too about life guard shortages, and I can't help but feel like that's just one more symptom of an eroding public life and common spaces. I wish every town had a public pool for all of the reasons you've listed here as well was what other readers have shared.
Oh Eleanor you reminded me of an aspect of the public pool that I love so much but didn't mention in this essay: the locker rooms! I too have fond (if confusing) memories of furtively glancing at older ladies changing in locker rooms, being amazed by my mother's own comfort in those spaces, and learning about women's rolls and breasts and shapes and hair and care practices. My kids really love the locker rooms at our pool now for that reason. They are both shocked by the nudity and, I think, comforted by it, and the experience has inspired so many great conversations about nudity and privacy and respect (though the binary locker rooms are also confusing to them).
I enjoyed this essay so much! I always appreciate how you take experiences - like pool visits - that can seem like just an everyday thing but are so much more, and delve right down into the history and all the thoughts and feelings that come with it.
I normally feel like it’s just me who goes down the rabbit hole of reflecting on motherhood, relationships, racism, body image and pretty much every social issue while at the pool or beach, so it’s nice to know other people do as well.
And I have been doing a great deal of this lately as I’ve just come off an extended summer; we are travelling in our caravan and during winter (currently on the tail end of it here in Australia at the moment) we visited the warmer end of the country. So my kids and I have spent A LOT of time at public pools, caravan park pools, public beaches and waterholes that as tourists we basically treat as pools, giving me a lot of time and opportunity to observe people in these places and consider all the functions they serve - to connect with both the local community and our ‘community’ of fellow travellers, respite for parents, and people of all ages practising and learning new skills.
Pools are a huge thing here in Australia - probably like California. Even lots of little towns that don’t have much more than one small school, one pub and a post office will have a public pool. And again, they are a social leveller, like yours. I often think the same thing of our public skate parks; they seem to function as the cool-weather version of the pool.
As a child our closest public pool was an hour and a half away (we lived a long way from town) but we had a small above ground pool in the backyard, one of those ones with a plastic liner and no pump, so we had to empty it out, scrub it, and refill it every week or so. But it was so worth it - my sister and I lived in it, and were always beyond thrilled when my dad would also hop in and play, and when cousins and friends would visit and jump in.
But going to the town pool, which we could actually jump into, swim to the bottom, use the diving board, get a thickshake from the kiosk and basically party on, was always the ideal.
I enjoyed this so much! You are definitely not alone in traveling down the rabbit hole. And I love all these images of finding ways to get wet. My kids are into the local skate parks when it's cooler too, and you're right, they also have such a complex culture, wrapped up in policing and profiling, but also the insistence of communal movement.
This piece is so beautiful, and evocative, and thoughtful. I’m in New Zealand and lucky to have a public outdoor pool (not actually that common here) a 5min walk from my house. I’ll be using it more this summer now that my kids are older and that hyper vigilance you mentioned is slightly less, and will go into it with this same sense of curiosity and playfulness. Really amazing writing, thank you!
I loved this article, thank you. I wish I had fully formed thoughts to reflect back about the public pool we use which has some racial dynamics that is very typical of Manhattan (let's just say many in my network don't even know about this pool which is much more 'uptown'). We had an incident last weekend where I was shocked to learn it didn't have a caregiver policy for folks to help their loved ones with disabilities, special needs, etc., and sometimes I feel like wonderful public spaces like pools used to be - could be? should be? - the place where more inclusion of all types is intentionally structured.
Absolutely. From what I understand Manhattan pools also have some unique dynamics.
We lived in the Bay Area for five years, in a development with TWO pools (the Big Pool and closer to us a Small Pool) so we spent most of our pool time there, or at splash pads at several nearby parks. We did occasionally go to the large public pool (with a massive water slide) at a nearby high school, and my kids did take some swim lessons there too.
When we moved to the Midwestern sate I live in now, I was surprised to find that there weren't any standalone public pools per se; they were a partnership between the suburb and the local health club. So it was free with a health club membership or a small daily fee for the public. I couldn't help thinking it lent the pool a different vibe, but also my kids were getting older and out of the 'let's spend the whole day at the pool' vibe.
lol I just saw that I previously responded to this article. Clearly lots of feelings about pools ;)
Fellow pool mom here! I love this essay so much! Since my pregnancy with my second child seven years ago, I have a re-engaged love affair with the public pool. Back then it was a nearly daily ritual of rest and buoyancy for my swelling belly, while my 8 year old son and his friends were expansive with bodily pleasure and play. That need to be embodied with him ended a several decades long, snobby rejection of crowds and chlorine. I've loved the public pool since, especially being in Oregon where summers are painfully brief. Now I have the pleasure of witnessing her growing confidence and skillfulness. The pool is a powerful childhood memory for me as well, a place of respite from the oppressive Texas heat and where my father and I played with sweet love before our relationship became complicated. Thank you for this homage to public pools and for recognizing the complex racist histories and gendered realities these spaces hold.
I love these images of your love affair, Kristy, thank you!
I love this! (And I cackled when it showed up in my inbox--I'd been thinking of a similar headline but clearly did not get around to writing it, and hadn't brought your depth of analysis about the space to my own musings.) We have a public pool in our town that I love for similar reasons. I think a lot about the importance of shared public spaces, and the pool really feels like one to me. (Though of course it's not *entirely* public--it's cheap, but there's a fee to join, and I know last summer in particular there were a lot of issues with rules being enforced inconsistently--as in, black teens being much more heavily surveilled.)
I would love to read your essay, Nancy! I think a lot about what public space means too--the constructedness of "nature" and "commons," unequal access (no neighbors who are homeless or underhoused allowed, for instance). Your comment on overpolicing/surveillance of black community members also reminds me of a great chapter from Sara Ahmed's book The Cultural Politics of Emotion that I used to teach. It's about anxiety in public space, specifically how white anxiety always receives priority over the fear or anxiety felt by black citizens in public spaces.
I relate to this so much and love it !
Thanks for reading Lane! ❤️
Beautiful! Pools are my only happy childhood memory, and it’s quite sad it isn’t something I can share with my kids (we just don’t have any nearby).
Sorry to hear that! Swimming is such a return to childhood for me too.
And dean koontz books! My mom used to read them by the pool. Stephen King and John Saul and Laverle Spencer, too!
Oh yes, poolside reading!
I lived in the East Bay Area for five years, and frequented the local pool basically attached to a high school (kids took swimming lessons and played). Our subdivision (my words, I don't know what else to call it) also had two pools, which is where we spent most of our time. The gated country club community next to us had a private pool, as part of the country club, and a huge swim team and culture around that (we did not participate, but pretty much everyone who lived in that neighborhood did). When we were looking for homes, we knew we didn't want a backyard pool, as our kids were very young, but our realtor insisted we would want a neighborhood with a pool, and she was right. I spent most of my years there at great public parks, library events, and pools. We were fortunate to have them all available to us.
I'm in the East Bay! There is definitely a valuing of public space here. And yes the swim team culture could be a whole separate essay!