Northwood News ♦ October 2005

Life in Our Community:  Confessions of a Pool Rat

By Diana Frey

The Forest Knolls Pool is a community within a community, a home away from home during the summer months of the year, and, most of all, a family.  Definition of me:  pool rat.  Life at the pool begins with swim lessons and every child’s first hurtle of jumping off the diving board for the first time, taking at least 20 minutes of staring down from the board into the water.  Once this first feat is accomplished, there is no stopping a destined swimmer.  Finally being old enough to join the swim team, with the understanding that “freestyle” obviously means the swimmer’s choice of stroke.  Little kids become hard-core when they learn how to swim on the swim team, even if it means getting their legs duct-taped together just to learn legal butterfly.

I knew my career path ever since I could talk (talk to the lifeguards, that is).  The male lifeguards always made me shy.  The female ones teased me about crushes, taught me how to back-dive, and caused a hugely embarrassing moment by making me try to blow the signature whistle for adult swim, even though no one seemed to hear it but me.  I knew when I was old enough I was going to work at the pool and not once have I regretted it.  Who wouldn’t want to go to work at a place associated with fond memories?  I have worked my way up to a manager position, and it is rewarding to see people relaxing and enjoying life contently.  It is even more rewarding to have little girls come up to me, wanting to blow my whistle for adult swim.

I have visited many pools in my day and never have I found one with the surrounding scenery of woods like that of the Forest Knolls Pool.  It is these very trees that cause dirt and debris in the pool (every patron’s concern).  But these same trees are the ones that can begin to describe the peace and tranquility that can be found in our home, and the tightly knit relationships of the community it holds.  My mom passed away when the pool was closed for the winter one year, but it was these summer friends made at the pool who were first at the door to support my family.

Every year the threat of being shut down due to lack of funding looms and every year, to my relief, we do open.  Although it may not look pretty on the outside, everyone knows that it’s what on the inside that counts, and what is on the inside is heart.  What would a pool be without laughter and happiness and support like that provided by the members of the Forest Knolls Pool?  I know I would be a completely different person if I hadn’t grown up here, and I don’t know what I would do if it closed.   ■