July 1!

How can it be July 1 already?? The good news is that it is the height of fresh veggies and fruits. The down side is summer is moving too quickly. But closer to football season..such a ying/yang-
I went swimming at the Big Vanilla pool this morning and had some major flashbacks growing up in Bay Ridge in Annapolis. That was during the time where you could rent a 4 bedroom house on the bay for 150.00 a month. Granted, it was a bit primitive-no A/C, questionable septic system, but who cared-we lived at the beach and the Bay Ridge pool.
Which brought me to my memories. Being a family of 6 and living on limited funds-life involved what was free or low cost. The Bay Ridge pool was about a 1/2 mile walk from our house (barefoot of course) and required pool passes. There was always two major obstacles to overcome when we spent sun up to sun down at the pool-getting in for free was one of them. We scoped out holes in the fencing first-that was successful alot of the time. Somehow we managed to get all 4 of us in without ever purchasing that expensive pool pass.
The other obstacle was eating when we spent our entire day there. We never packed food (PB and J might have been the only choice) so after a 12 hours day at the pool, hunger sets in. We would make the rounds with the pin ball machines for change. Then we would scope out the bottom of the pool for loose change. Then we would move on to begging the lifeguards, who knew all of us by our first names. I lived on a fritoes and snowballs, and occasionally a hamburger if I was superlucky.
It was a coming of age time for me...preteen. I had my first shirley temple at the cabana bar with my parents listening to Sugar, Sugar by the Archies. I watched the men walk on the moon on the club house television. I jumped off the high dive-first and only time. I excelled at pin ball machines. And who knows how I found the money for that.
Good times...my brothers probably spent more time sitting on the edge of the pool that actually swimming-thanks to rowdy behavior. Never seemed to faze them. What a great place to grow up.