Post-Party
Jul 20th, 2008 at 3:22 pm by Susie
Well, it all went well. The food, thanks to Somegirl, was magnificent. The only problem was the heat: It was so hot in my apartment that, with the a/c turned down to 60 degrees, it still felt like Death Valley with all those people crowded into it.
I had to shoo people into the yard. “Really, it’s not that hot out there,” I told them. (I lied.) But they seemed relatively happy, there was a nice breeze and several people were cooling their feet in my wading pool. The bride had a wonderful time, she told me.
Today, I’m unwinding. I went swim to the public pool with my neighbor, and it was a welcome change from being trapped inside in the air conditioning. Now I’m going to take a nap.
At least you have a public pool to go to! Here in Suboonia, NJ, it’s all “swim clubs,” even for municipalities. A season pass has to be purchased, but the closing time is so early that most people who work and commute don’t get back in time to swim in the early evening. I also noticed that families get a real cost break, and singles pay through the nose (must think we’re all rich or something–or they don’t want singles bestirring thoughts of extra-marital activity among the married–actually, I can’t figure it out).
Anyway, I remember so fondly evening swims, first in the lakes near where I lived in WI, then in the city pools in Milwaukee. I have no idea how late pools stay open now, but back in the 70’s most had evening hours and it was so neat to swim past the underwater lights.
Alas. Do so miss communitarian policies on the part of, well, communities out here…. Some things they do well, but access to swimming is not one of them
Oh, and glad your party went well. Heat can be bummer, but sounds like it was handed well by your guests.
Jawbone: such is the midwesterner’s lament. For those of us raised to consider ourselves part of a community of strangers, New Jersey is an odd, odd place.
In San Jose, the city has closed some public pools because of maintenance costs and budget deficits. This city of nearly a million really sprawls, and the remaining pools are few and far between. (And probably overcrowded.)
But there’s a big university pool a few blocks from us, and they sell summer passes. Single admissions are about $3 a pop, unless they raised it this year.
I have fond memories of the New york public pools, which were one of the (few) unequivocally good things that Robert Moses brought about.