Summer ends and so does the fun at Rehm Pool

The children are back to school. No more hot summer days spent at Rehm Pool, a wonderful destination for children and adults alike. There are still some limited hours at the pool (i.e. Night Swim and weekends) until it is finally shut down Labor Day weekend. I encourage you to stop by if you have the time and are in the area.

For years my family has taken part in the tradition of swimming and spalshing at this wonderful venue complete with a kiddie pool, sand box, zero depth access, diving boards, water slides, and the coup de grace PLATFORMS! I use that term literally. I thought it meant "and finally" or "the best", but actually found a proper definition on Wikipedia that states "a death blow...". And here is why I use it literally. A week ago I noticed that patrons were jumping off the first platform (3 meters) only and I had not seen anyone try the 2nd (5 meters) or 3rd platform (10 meters) in a long time. So I asked a trustworthy lifeguard about this and he informed me that they no longer allow the use of the 2nd and 3rd. "Why?" I asked nicely. He did not have an answer.

So I made an assumption: Some legal eagle/ insurance handler at the OP Park District decided it was too risky to allow "dangerous" activities such as this to continue. If someone got hurt, they could sue the Park District or worse the Village. And so another rite of passage for children in Oak Park was taken away. No more bragging rights over friends who had to do the "Walk of Shame" back down the spiral staircase if they got cold feet when they stepped to the end. No more urban legends of a kid doing a belly flop off the 3rd platform and splitting his/her torso open from chest to pelvis (this was an actual story circulating while I was growing up) and their guts floating to the bottom of the tank. It is just another in a long line of activities, not particularly life threatening in my eyes, that have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

It's a shame really. My children will never know the nervousness, excitement, and exhilaration of leaping off a 30+ foot tower into 16 feet of water. To muster up the courage it takes to pull off this feat. And the fun and adrenalin rush you get from it. They will just have to take it from me that it is really cool. I did it many times. And I even went further into the danger zone, stupidly perhaps, by having swim team friends through kick boards and pull buoys at me as I plummeted down to the H2O. I also mentioned the time I rode a 10 speed Schwinn Traveler bike off the 3rd on a lark. I wouldn't encourage that one now that I am 43, but we learn from our actions. Stupid or otherwise. It's just too bad they will never get the chance.  

Sometime soon I'll write about The Day in Our Village activities that also got nixed, like walking through a parking lot of fire-retardent foam piled 8 feet high, or hook and ladder rides out over the Eisenhower Expressway. Now that's a real shame.

Vic