| BG pool closing stirs memories |
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| Written by JORDAN CRAVENS Sentinel Staff Writer | |||
| Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:20 | |||
They went there for swimming lessons, open swims and some even joined the Bowling Green Swim Club. "We taught about a 1,000 kids a summer just in swimming lessons back then," said Suzanne Wright, who taught her first swimming lesson in 1967. "We were packed every session." "Back then it was the center of what you did. They didn't have the mall, they didn't have computers and they didn't have cell phones," said Wright, who later went on to manage the pool. "It's where children went. They rode their bikes, their baby sitter brought them in or they walked." The city pool was the second home for the Sanchez children, of Bowling Green. Barbara Sanchez sent six of her children through the Bowling Green Swim Club program between 1977 and 1998. "It ended up being a huge part of their development," Sanchez said. Her children, now between the ages of 33 and 43, joined the swim team as it was building its ranks. "We saw the program grow from having little dual meets on Saturday mornings to going to state and nationals," Sanchez said. The pool was also a home away from home for staff members. "It was kind of like you didn't have other friends in the summer. They were your friends," said Pam Fahle, who worked at the pool from 1973 to 1979.
"You'd wake up in the morning and you would go to the pool for competitive swimming practices, then you would teach swimming lessons and then you life guarded," said Tim Stubbs, facilities coordinator for the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department. Stubbs first began spending lots of time at the pool in 1965 as a member of the Bowling Green Swimming Club. He also taught swim lessons, life guarded, managed the pool and coordinated its maintenance over the years. "Spending that much time with a small number of people meant you got to know them really well," he said. Lifeguards also came to know the kids they taught and guarded at the pool. Some, they still see out and about, Fahle said. "It seemed like there for a while I taught every kid in town," she said. Working at the city pool is what led Doug Ackerman to his wife of 25 years. Ackerman worked at the pool from 1977 to 1985. He met his wife, Rose Marie, who tagged along with her former roommate, who also worked at the pool, to an open swim. The two started talking because Ackerman was smoking a cigar in celebration of his niece's birth. The smoke, he said, was the only thing that kept the mosquitoes away - and later proved to be what brought Rose Marie to his side. |
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