Pool Boy
I have always had a knack for having things happen to me that make great stories to tell. Some of these things are a result of choices I make and some of them just happen. Hopefully, over the summer, I can share some of these.
Last week I was officially certified as a Red Cross lifeguard. This summer I will be lifeguard at the Jackson Country Club. The only thing halfway strange about this is that I am 26 and married. See, lifeguarding would've been a pretty cool job to have when I was, say, 18 or 19...but 26 could border on creepy. The advantages of lifeguarding for a 19 year old male are seemingly endless. Free tan, no heavy manual labor, lots of girls, etc...for a 26 year old married man the advantage is this: a summer job/paycheck.
Many of the students I teach have asked me this question: "Why are you lifeguarding this summer? Don't you get paid from school?" The answer is "yes, I get paid and I'm not sure why I'm lifeguarding...it sounded like a good idea at first". Yesterday I went to the pool to turn in my paperwork and get a crash course on the filtering system, pool vac, and chemical changing. Our filter system is pretty shot so it kicks out sand at the left side of the shallow end of the pool. The pool vac is attached to a 20 foot tall pole that is pieced together with duct tape and other fine material. The pool manager asked me to vacuum some in the pool so that I could get the hang of it. Do you ever get a sense of how someone sees you when you're performing a task or doing some physical activity? I hardly ever think of how people see me, but yesterday as I had the pool vac rolling furiously on the bottom of the pool and as I wrestled with that pole that kept falling apart each time I pulled back on it, I had a clear vision of who I was at that moment: I was the "pool boy". I was wearing a t-shirt that was black with white letters saying "New Jersey" on the left side of the front of the shirt and on the back was written in red cursive "Lovin' " and in white capitalized print "Jersey". I just recently shaved my head completely (razor and all) and my scalp had about four days growth on the top and my face matched it except for the black goatee that hadn't been trimmed in a few weeks. In short, I looked like a dock worker on the eastern seaboard. I'm quite sure I made a great impression on the aristocrats at the Country Club. But hey, sometimes there are sacrifices for a paycheck...like a free tan, no manual labor, and, of course, cleaning the pool.
Last week I was officially certified as a Red Cross lifeguard. This summer I will be lifeguard at the Jackson Country Club. The only thing halfway strange about this is that I am 26 and married. See, lifeguarding would've been a pretty cool job to have when I was, say, 18 or 19...but 26 could border on creepy. The advantages of lifeguarding for a 19 year old male are seemingly endless. Free tan, no heavy manual labor, lots of girls, etc...for a 26 year old married man the advantage is this: a summer job/paycheck.
Many of the students I teach have asked me this question: "Why are you lifeguarding this summer? Don't you get paid from school?" The answer is "yes, I get paid and I'm not sure why I'm lifeguarding...it sounded like a good idea at first". Yesterday I went to the pool to turn in my paperwork and get a crash course on the filtering system, pool vac, and chemical changing. Our filter system is pretty shot so it kicks out sand at the left side of the shallow end of the pool. The pool vac is attached to a 20 foot tall pole that is pieced together with duct tape and other fine material. The pool manager asked me to vacuum some in the pool so that I could get the hang of it. Do you ever get a sense of how someone sees you when you're performing a task or doing some physical activity? I hardly ever think of how people see me, but yesterday as I had the pool vac rolling furiously on the bottom of the pool and as I wrestled with that pole that kept falling apart each time I pulled back on it, I had a clear vision of who I was at that moment: I was the "pool boy". I was wearing a t-shirt that was black with white letters saying "New Jersey" on the left side of the front of the shirt and on the back was written in red cursive "Lovin' " and in white capitalized print "Jersey". I just recently shaved my head completely (razor and all) and my scalp had about four days growth on the top and my face matched it except for the black goatee that hadn't been trimmed in a few weeks. In short, I looked like a dock worker on the eastern seaboard. I'm quite sure I made a great impression on the aristocrats at the Country Club. But hey, sometimes there are sacrifices for a paycheck...like a free tan, no manual labor, and, of course, cleaning the pool.
posted by Gabe at 4:45 AM
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