Every one of us remembers stories from our youth. As you dwell on these stories and the loved ones they contain, it triggers certain emotions. It could be laughter, grief, anger, or just cause you to say, “Oh yeah, I remember the Pool Day!” That was last Friday for our family. But listen closely to the reactions of our kids. They could have been bitter or angry. They weren’t. We all laughed. We laughed a ton and truly connected as a family. I’m absolutely certain that any family event mixed with strong emotion will be remembered for years and years to come. Now, I invite you to join our National Lampoon, Griswold Family, comedy of errors forever known as Pool Day.
An eager group of swimmers left the homestead at 12:30pm. Dad had some work to get out in the morning but had the afternoon wide open. It was mid-August in Upstate New York. The sun had zero cloud interruption, scorching the ground to nearly 88 degrees. This was a perfect day for swimming. Just perfect.
Three weeks prior, our family checked out the Peerless Pool in Saratoga Spa State Park. It only cost $8 to enter the park and then $7 more for the pool itself. We spent hours there. The pool is the size of a football field (no joke, google it). There is a separate kids pool with the umbrella drencher thing, where you stand underneath and get soaked. They also have a third pool as the basin for the side-by-side water slides. Those slides were great! Lastly, the pool has a ton of green grass and trees for the perfect lunch picnic and we took full advantage. However, this past Friday was different. Very different.
When we arrived in the packed minivan to the front gate of the park, we noticed a sign.
‘Slide Pool Closed’
Was this just a sign, or another type of sign? We were disappointed and nearly turned around to go elsewhere, but the family decided that we could make the best of it. So what if the water slides were closed. At least we had the pool, the kids’ pool, and the picnic area.
Within minutes, we had sprawled the blankets, towels, swimming gear, and picnic food over a nice patch of green and began eating. It wasn’t an overly filling lunch as we were planning an early buffet dinner around 5:30 pm.
Suddenly, the whistles blew from the lifeguard stands and the entire football-sized pool cleared in minutes. My first thought and that of my family was, “Hmmm. Maybe they are changing lifeguards out or taking a break?” But after 15 minutes, nothing was changing. The pool was empty, the lifeguards were circling the pool, a few were scrubbing something off the concrete, and nobody was announcing anything. “Errrr! Back up! Did I just say scrubbing the concrete?!”
I was off the picnic blanket faster than Usain Bolt’s 100-meter start last week andbolted to the circling lifeguards.
“Excuse me. What’s going on with the pool?”
“A kid just vomited. We’ve chlorinated and shocked the pool. We should re-open in 30 minutes.”
“Did he vomit in the pool or over there where they are scrubbing?”
“Both.”
Carfagno Family OUT… like Ryan Seacrest. Our picnic was cleared and $15 refunded faster than Usain finished the 100-meters. Wait, he kind of broke a new world record with a time of 9.81 seconds. Maybe, it wasn’t that fast, but we did break a sweat! Nonetheless, we never got to swim.
As we drove out through the park gate, we noticed the sign again, ‘Slide Pool Closed’. No big deal. It was still early and we did have a great picnic with lots of entertainment. “Family vote. Do we want to go to the lake? It’s a half hour drive, but we can play in the sand and still swim. Or do we want to go check out the other pool in the park, or maybe even the sprinkler park? The sprinkler park had been heavily promoted by a friend, therefore it won.
I said to my wife. “What’s the address of the sprinkler park?”
“I was told it’s near a baseball field and you can’t miss it!” She responded.
Easy enough. I found a baseball field and drove around. Nothing obvious captured my attention. Oh wait. Right there… toward the back. I pulled around and nudged the car up to the sprinkler park. Have you ever been promoted something that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be? Has that ever happened to you? “Yup, so this is the sprinkler park.” I murmured as I compared it to my neighbor’s back yard set up. A few tiny jets of water shot from the concrete. Teresa and I looked at each other. We both turned around to the kids. Laughter erupted.
Carfagno Family OUT… again!
It was still early as the sprinklers barely consumed any afternoon. We put the remaining two choices to vote and added a third. “New family vote. Lake and sand. Other Saratoga pool. Or check out the pool in Ballston Spa?” The other Saratoga pool won on a count of 4 to 2. Me and my oldest son were the only lake votes.
By 2:00 pm, we parked at Victoria Pool. It was built in the 1930’s and was acclaimed as the first heated pool in the country, so it’s pretty famous actually. But before we unpacked the car again, my 11-year-old son Kenny and I checked it out. Our expectations were high to swim at a historical pool.
It was packed with people laying all over the concrete and stone structures, remarkably resembling the Roman Baths with its combination of soldiers and citizens. However, Kenny and I were turned off by the lack of swimming space, lack of a diving board, and lack of grass. And I was turned off by the $32 admission price for the family.
Strike three. It was getting late and the eager swimmers were losing patience. Nah, no strike three. Vote three. “Family vote. Lake and sand or Ballston Spa pool?” The lake won 6 – 0.
We had a fun drive up to the lake, cracking jokes about the lack of swimming and of course, vomit jokes. One such joke was even, and I kid you not, “Wouldn’t it be funny if somebody vomited in the lake and it was closed too?” Ha, ha, ha… ha… haaaaa.
The 3:00 pm main strip of Lake George was as beautiful as ever. Parasailers hovering overhead. Tourists flocking the boardwalk-style stores and snack shops. And beach-goers…. the beach-goers were laying out in a few places, but most must have left the beach already.
We pulled up to Million Dollar Beach’s entrance gate and noticed a sign. It was oddly similar to the one from earlier.
‘Beach Closed’
A joke or a misread, I’m sure. We all glanced over to the always crowded beach. It was abandoned, completely barren except for a few off-balance seagulls.
“Excuse me. I see the sign, but is the lake really closed?” I said to the gate attendant.
“Yup, the entire lake.”
COME ON!!!! Lake George is like the size of a county. Million Dollar Beach was closed. The whole lake was closed. Our dumb joke on the way was prophetic. Some guy did vomit in Lake George and his name was Coliform.
Carfagno Family OUT… no swimming… Again!!!
It was around 3:30 when we left the lake and pulled into some random water park near the exit of the town. This time I told Teresa. “I’ll take Kenny and see if we can work some magic.”
“Yes, hello. My name is Ken. This is Kenny.” I said to the girl at the counter. “Listen, we’ve been trying to swim since noon, but the pool was vomited in, the sprinklers were too small like the first bowl of porridge Goldilocks tried to eat, and now all of Lake George is closed. Can we get some kind of discount for the remaining time here?”
“I’m sorry. The water park is closing in 30 min.”
“Oh, well can you give us a good price for the last 30 minutes?”
“Sorry, it’s $30 per person.”
“WHAT!!!” Carfagno Family OUT!!! For $1 per minute, we’re better off buying lottery tickets and scratching those for 30 minutes!
This time, we were out for good. I called a final family meeting. “Today, we failed miserably in the goal of swimming. However, we laughed a lot. I’m very proud of you guys for keeping a good attitude. I promise that we WILL go swimming this weekend somehow, somewhere. But for today, it’s over. Who’s hungry?”
Fellow Dads, in 10 and 20 years this will still be a funny memory for our kids and probably our grandkids. What will you allow to derail you this week that could be turned around for good?
