Lifeguarding

My very favorite job I ever had was a lifeguard at my neighborhood pool. I guarded for 3 summers while I was in college, while I was at home living with my parents. Seriously, if I could do it now, I would. I was the head guard, so I was "in charge" of all the high school guards, so of course that made me feel important! We had lots of kids that came to the pool every day. I had a lot of great memories of going to the pool while I was little, and the guards being really nice to me, so I went out of my way to make the kids feel special. I'd swim with a few of them during adult swim, let them help me test the chlorine every hour, toss them in the deep end (they would all line up for that!), and I remembered all their names. Lots of moms told me that their kids would cheer when they saw my car in the parking lot. :)

I was just remembering some stories from the pool and wanted to share them! So here goes...

I had Fridays off every week, but I usually got a call about something during the day. One time, the three guards that were working called me at home and said frantically, "Beth, you better get down here now!" I asked why, but they wouldn't tell me, and just told me to come. So I thought someone was drowning or something and they didn't know what to do. (That wouldn't have surprised me.) So I flew down to the pool. When I got there, all three of them were huddled under the umbrella with worried looks on their faces. They pointed down to the shallow end, and there was a huge Italian woman who had just moved into the neighborhood with her two little boys. She was laying out, face up with her big sunglasses, her bikini bottom, and NOTHING ELSE. Yeah. I had to go tell her to put her top back on.

The second time was the only time I ever had to "save" someone. There was a Chinese family that moved in right behind the pool one summer. One day, the mom and a little boy who was about 3 came in. The mom said, "Look Mark. Nice water. Cool water. We come back after lunch and swim." Then they turned around and left.
After lunch they came back with their bathing suits on and got into the shallow end. I could tell the mom was scared of the water - she wouldn't even let the water get higher than her waist. Mark, on the other hand, was not scared. His mom had him jump in to her and she would catch him before he even hit the water. One time she wasn't looking for a second and he fell all the way in. He loved that, but his mom picked him up and said, "No Mark! You wait for Mommy!" Well, Mark decided that he didn't want to wait for Mommy. He ran down a little ways and jumped in before his mom could get to him. Whenever he jumped in, he would just float there, the top of his little head sticking out, holding his breath, until his mom got to him. He did that several times, each time running a little further from his mom. She kept yelling, "No Mark! Wait for mommy wait for mommy!" He didn't listen. So he ran down to the deep end. By this time his mom was screaming, "No Mark NO JUMP NO JUMP!" Mark just looked at his mom, and jumped right in. So I had to jump in and take him back down to the shallow end to his mom. His mom grabbed him, started spanking and yelling, and dragged him home leaving all their clothes and towels behind. A few hours later, Mark came walking back in, wearing a life jacket, water wings, and a ring around his waist. Whenever he jumped in after that, his knees barely got wet!
I don't know what happened at home, but he listened a lot better for the rest of the summer!