WHERE WE SWAM

MCCREE was the most popular swimming haunt throughout the 1960s-early 2000s, fondly remembered for its high dive, free-swim sessions, concession machines and easily scalable fence, sometimes taken advantage of by rebellious teens daring a midnight dip. It closed in 2007.

“We jumped the fence and swam at night … around ’79,” notes Sondra Smith McClendon.

“The drink machine dropped the little paper cup out then squirted syrup from one side and carbonated water from the other,” recalls Diane Hale Smith.

“First time I ever jumped off a high diving board,” Robbie Pigg tells us He had no air conditioning at home, so spent as much time as possible submerged. “We only had an attic fan … how did we do it?”

SKYLINE is a close second when it comes to nostalgia. It’s still open today, renamed Lake Highlands North, and it is due to receive a major overhaul next year. But way way back, opening day at Skyline pool yielded one of the most legendary bits of Lake Highlands lore: Amid opening-day frenzy — floatie-clad kiddies splashed in all four corners and every inch in between— a 5-year old girl stepped off the diving board’s edge, disappeared, and, moments later, had not resurfaced. The father of another child, watching from the clubhouse balcony, scanned the poolside. Had anyone else noticed? Deciding no, he jumped, shattering his foot in the process. He drew the attention of a lifeguard, who rescued the girl from the pool’s floor. That man was the father of Debra Oaks Pettit, a Lake Highlands resident. The little girl, now a healthy 52-year-old woman, was a friend of her sister. “They did not yet have insurance,” Pettit recalls, “so my dad paid out of pocket for his cast.”

Joanie Jordan Buster remembers being a lifeguard at Skyline her senior year, '81. ”I hated the hideous orange swimsuits they made us wear.”

A pre-teen Suzie Luther James caught the eye of one fellow swimmer. “My husband's very first memory of me is from the summer of 1971 at Skyline swimming pool. A 12-year-old skinny girl with a dark tan and a florescent orange bikini made a lasting impression on him.”

DIVE IN: WHERE WE SWAM

It was accompanied by an amusement park. “The kids loved Vickery Park,” Lake Highlands resident Mark Davis recalls. “It was a big pool and there were other things to do besides swim. We used to go ride the electric bumper cars straight out of the water, which I doubt was a very good idea, but at the time nobody cared if dripping wet children got on 220 volt electric cars with shoddy wiring and bashed each other.” through the year at our school,” notes Amy Adams. “Gene Coppedge coached at LHHS and taught summer sessions of swimming at his pool for many years,” Joyce Pittman says. “The first technique Coach Coppedge taught me was to float on my back, then pull water up along my side so I’d end up crossing the pool face up and feet first,” Amy Matlock Connel recalls. “I still do it, and it always reminds me of that pool.”

OTHER public pools in the vicinity included Boundbrook Park, Ridgewood, Fair Oaks, Lochwood, Harry Stone, Tietze and Samuell-Grand.

PRIVATE POOLS grew popular, such as Knights of Columbus 799, known to Lake Highlands residents as the KayCee pool. It opened in the ’50s where the White Rock DART station now sits. It relocated to Northwest Highway near Ferndale in 1998. There is a two-year wait for an annual membership, which runs about $400. The Royal Oaks Country Club pool, Elks Lodge (then on Greenville, now on Northwest Highway), White Rock and Lake Highlands YMCAs, and the Jewish Community Center pools also were popular. “I practically grew up at the Elks Lodge,” Janie Pate Abraham writes . “The bottom of that pool ate the skin of my toes smooth off.”

CREEKS AND NATURAL POOLS were the best, recalls Phil Brockett: “We swam in the creek running behind McCree pool. There were places that got to about four feet deep with nice white rock bottoms.”

According to Todd Barnes, “Behind Lake Highlands North there is a path that leads down to two tunnels, and at the end of the first tunnel, under White Rock Trail, was a pool full of crawdads. No one ever swam in it intentionally, but some accidentally took a dip. At the end of the second was Jackson Branch. We would slide down the muddy creek beds as we watched the apartments and Kroger (now LA Fitness) being built.”

RESIDENTIAL POOLS came along in the ’70s. Mindy Hawley Stuart had a pool, she recalls, the only one in the neighborhood. “My dad set up a system for the neighborhood kids to come swim. He made a flag on a pole and when the flag was up anyone could come swimming but if the flag was down it was family time.”

“Our neighbors down the street had a pool where we would play Marco Polo,” reports Gene Saugey. “They had a sign that said, ‘We don’t swim in your toilet. Please don’t pee in our pool.’ ” Classic.

APARTMENT POOLS were pretty easily accessed by teens willing to bend the rules. The one at the Village Apartments was booming. “In high school me and the girlfriend used to go to the Village and swim in the nice big pool,” says Dean Ingram. “There was hardly anyone ever there and no one ever asked us if we lived there.” King Edwards and Villa Cipango Apartments also are mentioned.

VICKERY PARK, in the 1940s, was located near where Presbyterian Hospital is today and had Texas’ biggest swimming pool.

BELOVED SWIMMING TEACHERS , two in particular, were mentioned again and again.

“My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, and I have taught thousands and we still teach

NORTHPARK INN is remembered by few. In the ’70s there was a luxurious hotel located at 9300 Central Expressway. In addition to a helipad, limousine service, and TVs and radios, the inn boasted two swimming pools, to which a privileged few Lake Highlands residents had access. “Does anybody remember NorthPark Inn?” queries Nick Stevens. “We had a swimming pool membership there when I was little.” Few chimed in, but we located a vintage postcard of NorthPark Inn, which shows two large (and one smaller, likely a hot tub) aqua-blue bodies amid a sprawling complex. Best Western owned the place. For $35 a night, families could enjoy the amenities, plus dining, dancing and $1 drinks at the resort’s Old New York Tavern, according to an advertisement in Texas Monthly.