Swim at the Gym

The play pool was full past capacity with two large groups – a 4^th grade class from Ogden and another unidentified group plus all the usual riffraff – as I strutted out to claim our lane in the adult pool.     This frantic woman comes rushing up to me “Your swimming suit is split out all down the back.” Holy Smoke. Since I was already exposed, I decided to get in the pool and get Ed situated before I retreated in shame. I remember hearing the old geezers in the old Deseret Gym pool in Ogden reminiscing about the days when they swam in the nude at the Deseret Gym. Of course, it was “males only” back in the day of discrimination which has changed in theory but not so much in actuality.

I held my suit together with my hand as I slithered into the dressing room. I always keep a spare suit in my gym bag. It’s so thin it’s probably less modest than a split out suit but who cares at this point? As I self-consciously swam along in a lane that only Eddy and I should have been in, this water-winged toddler passed me by and bumped into Eddy. I looked around and could see no worried mother. “Life Guard! Life Guard! Life Guard!” I call, “there’s a toddler in the deep!” He looked around for the mother, then walked down to the deep end and rescued him. There were at least six life guards on duty plus dozens of parents and chaperones; and not one person had seen that toddler leave the play pool and jump into the deep.

That was enough excitement for one day at our normally sedate pool.