The Old Swimming Hole

Chet

Chet

Well-known Member
Location
PA, USA
We had three that I recall. The first was half way up the mountain and through the woods to a hole that was excavated in the process of trying to locate coal for strip mining. Apparently it was a bust because it was abandoned and then rain and spring water created a pond. Skinny dipping was the name of the game.

When I got older, we walked to the river over a dusty old road and got all dirty from the dust of passing vehicles clinging to our perspiring selves. Making it to the river, we put on our trunks and swam from the shore to the railroad bridge piling and dived off a large rock. Once I swam across the complete width of the river going from pier to pier. These were the days of no sewage treatment and overprotective mothers, and I'm still alive to tell the tale. We walked back over the same road and got all sweaty and dirty again.

Lastly was a more civilized swimming hole at an amusement park with a floating dock and sandy bottom Nearby was a penny arcade.
I hardly ever have swam since.
 

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There were several swimming haunts we regularly visited as kids, with one particular beach that was like a dream.

The water clear, no yucky weeds, pure white sand, not too busy, and some of the most fun we ever had.

I was silly back in the day and didn't think much about, what awaits me under. Now, forget it, I don't like water at all aside from swimming pools.

Have developed somewhat a fear of what lurks under when swimming in the open.
 
We stayed at a place near the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica that had a series of natural pools going down the mountain. The top ones were HOT!HOT!HOT! and they cooled down as you went down the path. Open all night and lighted just enough to keep from falling off the mountain. We were soaking at 2 a.m. and nervously wondering what-the-heck was rustling around in the underbrush.....
 

We had two swimming holes that were more like small lakes. They were made years ago by men digging out clay to make bricks.
I was told never to go there because it was very deep and the wet clay on the banks was extremity slippery.
Of course my friends and I went anyway. My mom usually found out because the wet clay was a reddish color and it stained my clothes.
 
Ruth n Jersey said:
We had two swimming holes that were more like small lakes. They were made years ago by men digging out clay to make bricks.
I was told never to go there because it was very deep and the wet clay on the banks was extremity slippery.
Of course my friends and I went anyway. My mom usually found out because the wet clay was a reddish color and it stained my clothes.
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ROFLMAO!

I always felt on top of the world when I managed to pull the wool over my moms eyes, Ruth, because she was one sharp mom, and 99% of the time she had our number.
 
A plus of my logging camp home in the mountains was having a generous selection of streams and rivers full of swimming holes.
A negative of same was that all of these watercourses were glacier fed and so cold that you had to become numb just to tolerate swimming in them. We did swim in them though.
 
Well, The public swimming area closed at 5:00 P.M. so we would go to the slough! There were fish swimming around so we figured it was safe.
What did we know? We were just stupid kids!
 
We had a lake at the top of the hill behind my house and yet my dad installed a pool. Now the lake is gone and Walmart is there and the pool is gone and a parking lot is there. How times change. Not for the better, sadly.
 
we had a swimming hole downtown. we called it the sugar mill. i don't really know why. we used to go down there to swim because it was free. looking back though it was very dangerous.
 
We never had a swimming 'hole when I was a kid....all flat
farmland in Indiana, no decent creeks or rivers close by...when
I was about 15 or so the city built a swimming pool next to high school.....it was well used....
 
Our farm was irrigated by a series of canals and ditches. When I was preschool age we could only swim in the two foot ditch. first to fifth grade was swam in the four foot ditch. The summer of sixth grade was the first time I swam in the 12 foot canals. I had a town friend that liked to go to the pool but it was never as much fun as cut off jeans and the canals. there were 11 kids within a mile and we gathered at the swimming hole often. The best spots were at the head gates where the water had a little fall of a foot and was swifter. We would dive off the handrail and if you moved to the side the swirling waters would take you back to the gate. The best stop was 1/4 mile from my farm. I would walk up and then get carried downstream home when we were done swimming. During haying season I would be sweaty and dirty at the end of the day and often just jumped in fully clothed.
 

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