Very Sad

Tragedies:

Four people have died and three vanished within two days at beaches in New York City and on Long Island.

      How terrible. People love to swim, but unfortunately dihydrogen monoxide is fatal when inhaled. Meanwhile, in bucolic Ridgewood, Graydon Pool has hosted its third drowning in thirty years. This has prompted hysterical calls to pave over the pool:

this is something that would have never happened if it wasn't a brown bottem (sic) pool. If they made thins (sic) a REAL POOL!!!!

We've lived in Ridgewood for 9 years and don't take my kids to Graydon because of the dark water. It's not worth the risk. I won't go until they change it to a cement bottom with clear, chlorinated water.

I live in ridewood (sic), and i agree that what happened was really upseting(sic) and i am very sorry that his family and friends have to go through this situation. i think this tragidy (sic) could have been prevented. They spent over 30 minutes looking for the boys(sic) body in the merky (sic) discusting (sic) water. If the pool was clear and clean they would have rescued him in only 4-5 minutes and his life would have been saved.

      Sigh. As tragic as any premature death is, one cannot design all risk out of life. Replacing Graydon with a concrete, clear water pool will simply replace the dangers of lake swimming with the dangers of filtered water swimming. What will happen when the first “little villager” (as we guards liked to call the young swimmers) gets his hand stuck in drain and can't get back to the surface? Or a child slips while running and lands on a concrete deck instead of a sand beach? Or somebody gets pushed off the edge and lands in 15 feet of water instead of a gentle sand bottom 12" deep? As far as the performance of the lifeguards, I would like to offer some perspective. It is astounding how quickly and quietly a swimmer can go from “okay” to “gone.” I remember sitting on the stand on the dock one afternoon. Two girls jumped in succession from the high dive, and came up. Seeing them safely on the surface, I turned to watch some youngsters swimming from the dock out to the deep water raft. While I watched those swimmers, the two girls from the high dive both became frightened, embraced each other, and slipped silently under the water within feet of the ladder. Luckily, the guard sitting over on the west bank was watching, blew the emergency whistle, and tragedy was averted. Graydon is a swimming pool, and as such carries inherent dangers. Changing the pool from sand to concrete will change the nature of the risk, but won’t eliminate it.

Cost of Living 1977

     This isn't an original idea for a post but one I thought would help keep the blog in prospective: How Much things cost in 1977: Yearly Inflation Rate USA6.5% Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 831 Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 7.75% Average Cost of new house $49,300.00 Average Income per year $15,000.00 Average Monthly Rent $240.00 Cost of a gallon of Gas 65 cents Bikini$9.00 Renault Gordini $6998,00 BMW 320i $7990.00 Minimum Wage = $2.30 Gallon of Milk = $1.67 First Class Stamp = $0.13

Larry Coyle

     As some of you may know, Larry Coyle taught English at RHS and was Head Coach of both the Men's Cross Country and Spring Track teams.

     I often think about the last words he said to our team in 1976, before he took his family to England for a sabbatical:

     "Dare to be good."

     Not that it was some world-changing utterance, but it was and has remained to me a gentle reminder to try hard at all endeavors no matter how humble they might seem.

     I know he meant it in the immediate context of our next race, but I also always felt he had a eye on developing us as human beings, too. As a former athlete himself he knew how quickly the glory would fade and how important it would be for us to have something to fall back upon other than medals and ribbons achieved in athletic competition.

      He offered us these words to make us think, and hopefully to inspire us when there wasn't a big meet to hold our attention and make us excel to our fullest potential. I always meant to ask what he meant but our paths didn't cross too many times after that and this philosophical discussion never took place. I suspect if we had spoken about it he would have offered me a modest smile and his customary encouragement. It was never his way to draw attention to himself and I think he probably would have blushed to think that I would remember his words and that I repeat them to people from time to time.