The Pool Is Open!

The swimming pool at my Denver condo building opened for the year this past Monday, which is the earliest ever for this annual event. And although nobody stated the reason out loud at the time, I believe the building manager purposely kept the pool closed until after the end of the University of Denver's spring quarter in June. The building is right across the street from DU, and before the pandemic, the building was filled with DU students. One of the things some of those students liked to do was climb up the side of the building to one of the balconies, and dive into the pool to impress the coeds. The last incident that I know of, the student jumped off the balcony and hit his head on the bottom of the pool, breaking his collar bone. He evidently got out and wandered around in a daze until someone took him to the hospital. Hence the late opening each year to prevent a recurrence of such an event. Of course, during and after the pandemic, when rents went way the hell up here in Denver, a lot of older people, families, and regular working people looking for a cheaper place to live moved into the building, ending the place's reputation as just another DU dorm. And I am here to tell you, older people don't usually climb balconies and dive into swimming pools. I took the photograph above, by the way, from my balcony overlooking that pool, holding a photograph of my mother Mary, Grandmother Spillard, and myself next to the pool at the Sun Castle, back in August of 1963 in Pompano Beach, Florida, the last time I actually went into a swimming pool. I am still waiting for just the right conditions to head down there. Perhaps it will be this year! Or perhaps not.