The Queen's Square Pool

Neither one of us had a stitch of clothing on. We'd been on our bikes. It was past midnight. It was 30 degrees and there wasn't a sliver of wind. We'd just left the town's biggest club, The Cosmopolitan (this was a few years ago) and we wanted to go swimmming.

So we headed to the Queens's Square Pool, an outdoor pool. There were sharp lengths of wire at the top that could do a number on our ability to procreate, but the heat was getting to us ... around the same time a big fat joint of Columbian Gold was getting to us.

We chucked our bikes on the grass, peeled down to our white asses, and climbed over the fence, prayers and all. The water was cool, still and quiet, the definitive definition of WET. We swam around for a while before we saw the lights flashing at the end of the street and made a mad dash for the fence.

We made it over without ripping our members off, and were sitting on the bench somewhat fully dressed when the officers reached us - a man and a woman.

They asked us if we'd been swimming. No, we said, dripping water from our hair, the smell of clorine all about us, me missing my socks, which were under the bench I was sitting on and well lighted by the female cop's flashlight.

We weren't too good at the not-getting-caught part of this thing. In the end, though, we were warned about the ten o'clock park curfew and given a few minutes to get our shit together before leaving as the cops strolled back to their cruiser.

To this day, I think that was the hardest assignment either of them ever had ... keeping straight faces while they were talking to us.

That was my first time ever in the Queen's Square outdoor swimming pool. It was years later when I returned with two children - a two year old daugher and a seven year old son. We spent almost every day there on the summer days I had my kids with me.

Later, Cassie took swimming lessons there and entered the swim team. She excelled at both. Because of those days, she's a few months away now from being a life guard.

More stories to follow on the Queen's Square pool and how it is so much a part of summer in the lives of so many.

(The picture shows the Queen Square pool in those days when the excitement is beginning to mount ... when it will open soon.)