The Best Summer Job

Bailey Schmidt
Composition 9
May 3, 2006

The Best Summer Job

Driving to the pool at 11:00, on a Thursday morning, ready to have a great day. I just woke up not to long ago, and took a shower. I open the gate with my key, and I’m the first one there. It’s a sunny warm day, so I have my sunglasses on. I go to the lockers and open the door. After putting my bags in my locker, I put sun block on, and go for a little swim. Josh and Alyssa show up five minutes later. They are excited to get into the pool too. We jump off the boards a couple times and than turn the slides on. We lay out on the chairs for about a half an hour, until noon.
Sometimes we might go out to eat if we don’t open, but if we do open we have to hose down the deck, wash the chairs, put up the umbrellas, put the first aide tubes and fanny packs out on the lifeguard chairs, and turn on the water features. After we get all that done, usually our co-workers start to show up. They mosey on in with half smiles on their faces.
In the locker room, it smells like tanning oils and last nights brownies left on the microwave. It sometimes also smells like wet towels that are hanging up above the bench. We all sit in the locker room and talk while we wait for 1:00. Looking around, you’ll see everyone dressed in red Lifeguard swimsuits, and maybe white shorts. People are putting sun block and tanning oil on. Then we pick a spot out of a little blue lunchbox, and there is either the slide pod or zero depth.
We all head out to our spots, with a whistle around our necks, or our wrists. When we get to our spots, kids start trampling in yelling and laughing with smiles on their faces. Everyone is so excited to swim. I will sit there and watch the kids have fun and wish I could join them. We have a 15-minute rotation, so after the first long 15 minutes of the day, it goes by fast. At about 2:50 we hear the intercom say, “It is now time for ten to three safety check, please exit the pool to the nearest side, and do not jump back in. Stay off all boards, slides and blue edges, and please visit our concession stand for a tasty treat.” Than he will say “Anyone who is 18 years or older may now re-enter the pool.” Sometimes the lifeguards will jump off the boards and swim to cool off. And than we all go back to our spots and Jim says, “You may now slowly re-enter the pool”
Than at around ten to 5:00 there is another safety check, and that’s when a new shift comes in, and the 1:00 shift is usually over. If we are in the late shift sometimes we will have little pool parties after work. We might order pizza and it would be a blast. We take inter tubes down the slides and jump off the boards into the tubes, in the dark. The pool is the funnest place to work because of the friendly staff, and the fun memories we have together.