Graydon Pool

We used to go to Graydon Pool quite a lot up until the time I was in the 6th grade. It was an all day affair with various set routines. We arrived in the morning and always sat on the "shaded side" with the big trees and where my Mom would meet up with her friends for an all day chat. Us kids would then swim until lunchtime and after a sandwich the Moms would have us religiously wait one half hour before we went in the water again. Nobody wanted us to cramp up and drown was their stated reason. In the afternoon there was always a visit to the ice cream truck and the gum ball machines and then we went home. Going to Graydon was an activity which used up all our daily allotment of youthful energy. I'm sure the Moms appreciated it because there would then be less trouble getting us to go to bed. It's funny reflecting back on all of this and thinking how different things are today. Women then didn't have to explain to anyone why they were housewives. Today they would have to explain why they aren't working at some career. Times certainly have changed. One other memory of Graydon: the Head Lifeguard, Richard Flechtner. His word was law and there were few who would dispute it. If they did they were usually given a stern lecture and might even be escorted off the premises. This was in Graydon Pool's heyday. Before the cheesy looking fence was put up, before everyone had a pool of their own, and when Graydon was a place to meet one's friends. It was a considerably more difficult place to manage than it is today. For one thing you can tell by looking that fewer people use the pool and there are more people on hand to maintain order. Though when I used to go there was always one man who maintained order among the pool goers and the lifeguards and that was Mr. Flechtner, Kurt's Dad. I never crossed him then and I kept this up when I met him once again at Ridgewood High School where he was the Athletic Director. He was the sort of person I didn't want to argue with because I knew he was going to be right and I had seen so many try and fail in this fruitless endeavor. It was always better in my mind to cut him a wide track and marvel at the efficiency with which he managed the pool.