Subject: RE: Swimming fifty -five years ago…and maybe even longer than that. Memory is a funny thing…..

Aloha All,

Today, Kathy and I went to almost all my old “swimming holes”; except only one was still there. Broadview Lakes , is now a private Gated community. Wild Wood lakes, is privately owned, and you are not allowed in at all. That left what I always called: Berea Quarries, and that is still there; still open, and still FREE. Except, its real name is : Wallace Lake. I never called it that, Mom and Dad probably did, not me.

I got my first terrible sun burn there- I was five. I got burnt so bad, that the blisters were the size of half dollar coins, and Dad had to heat a sewing needle, then poke the bottom of the blisters ; one at a time- so they would drain. It took me three weeks to heal. So, for those three weeks, I was left with a relative, while they went out to the lake. Peeling the skin off of a healing sunburned back was a treat, and we would all try to pull the biggest “piece of skin” off, without ripping out any of the New skin. Because pulling the new skin off , well, that hurt like heck. And man, it would get itchy. No super sun blocks back then, just wet t-shirts. No one knew about UVA/UVB – nor cared!

We went almost every Sunday – and a whole lot of Saturdays during the summer months. We,as a family, went to Wallace Lake to swim,from the summer of 1952 (which I do not remember at all) until the summer of 1963 – I was 11 that last time in 1963…soon to be 12.

My first memory of actually being there, was in 1956 – 55 years ago.  It looks much the same now, except for a paved parking area, and the wooden raft is gone, and there were only about 30 kids around the lake today, and not the 300 that crowded the water, when we were kids. Sometimes, all you could do was stand, there were so many kids, you couldn’t actually swim.

That is, unless you could go past the ropes – where the “Big Kids Swam” , or tried to kiss their young partners – with only their heads above the water. I was a kid, and none of that yucky stuff appealed to me. I did want to swim in the “deep water” – beyond the ropes. And even though I was a good swimmer, and I could pass their test: swimming from  one side of the lake and back – I was so short, and so little, they wouldn’t let me.

Here is Wallace Lake (Berea Quarries in my memory bank) as it appears today…almost exactly like it looked in 1956 – the first year I remember swimming there – and only because of the giant sunburn that year! (more writing beneath the picture!)

Notice how even at the ropes, the water is only about 3 feet deep? Maybe 4 Feet in places? Well, I thought that was deep water. My feet only barely touched the bottom, with my head out of the water – in just 3 feet of water. I was tiny! I used to think the rope was so far out…Now remember, I swam here before I even started school, and like most of my family, I was very small for my age.

There used to be no parking next to the lake. You parked a good quarter of a mile away (on gravel or grass) and then lugged all your picnic stuff to a table; and then Dad or some Uncle would make burgers and hot dogs. The kids and an older sibling, or Mom, would then go to the “beach” and stake out a blanket spot. That is where everyone under Ten years of age hung out. The teens went and jumped off of the wall – which seemed so high back then. You aren’t allowed on it now…it is a lifeguard station.  And the swings are gone too.

They would also walk on the other side – which looks like a river, but is the lake winding around a bend…and it had little beaches where you could hide and smooch. So everyone went to Wallace lake – and there were things to do for everyone. Back then – 1956  until 1963 ; 1963 is the last time I actually went there, until today! Society was a bit different…

First, everything was closed from Friday at Five PM, until Monday at 9 AM. Nothing was open. Not a thing. Once in a while, a Gas Station (37 cents a gallon by the way; and Full Serve!)

Second, on my street alone, there were 8 families with more than 10 kids! Most had at least four or five. Many , many , many more kids at the lake then now.

Third, because no one worked on the weekends…the older men would play Softball (fast and slow pitch) – and they usually were sponsored by Taverns or Pubs; or a Factory. Names like Pyramid Cafe, or Clark Spring and Wire, or Tony’s Barber shop…they looked so big and huge to us kids. They would play in the late afternoons, or even night games at the fancy park in Lakewood.

Down at Wallace lake picnic area, two ballfields, still there. You could get out of the water, and go join a pickup game; there were so many kids, that you would pick a team (11 players!) and your whole team would call “Next”; and play the winning team for 3 innings. This went on all day.

Back at the swimming hole, almost all the kids were 10 or younger – the Boomers. Almost all the guys were 28 to 38 – and most were WWII Vets. So you had men being men; kids being kids, and the women wore bathing caps and one piece bathing suits, or summer dresses. Everyone cooked out on the funny little barbecue stands (watch out for hot coals that some of the less careful folks threw out to make fresh coals. Lots of little feet got burns from the embers, including mine!)

Cars were huge back in 1956, not only in size, but as a kinda “Xbox” for teenagers. It would not be rare to see a “hot rod” parked on the grass with a half dozen older teenagers working on the engine. And everyone smoked. I mean everyone.  But for us little ones, it was all about the water and the beach.

To come back more than 55 years later, and see it still there, still being used by families, and small kids (and on a weekday no less) well, it was a whole mess a memories. Just a plastic cup, a bucket, and a small shovel, and you could play the whole day. Then at sundown, we were often one of the last to leave. My Dad liked to let the traffic thin out. So, sometimes my sister Kay, or my Brother in Law Carl, would carry me back to the car, worn out, tired and ready to sleep -as was my little brother Timmy, who was like two or three  at the time.

We would sleep on the floorboard – using the transmission hump (remember those?) as a pillow. Or, if you were lucky, you got the flat spot under the rear window. Which you kids may not believe, but it was big enough for an 8 year old to sleep on comfortably. Sometimes, people would put vases and a folded blanket on that “shelf”!! We would be wrapped in towels, trying to keep warm as we took the long ride home – back to West 30th street. Pile out of the car in the dark, and be sent right to bed- at 7:30 PM!!! And we went right to sleep.

Until we got to go again, in just a week. That was true for almost every summer weekend I remember, from 1956, until 1963. Beria Quarries, or Wallace Lake, no matter what you call it – you can still call it FUN.

Smiles Kevin