Big Spring Days

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

This week I take you back to the freezing waters of the Big Spring Muncipal Swimming Pool. The Big Spring Municipal Pool in Huntsville, Alabama, was part of a broader historical and cultural landmark known as Big Spring International Park, which has deep roots in the city's founding and development.

Here's the text about the Big Spring Pool from my book "The Baby Boomer's Guide to Growing Up in the Rocket City."

There is no doubt in my mind that if you asked any Baby Boomer who grew up in Huntsville to give a one word description of the Big Spring Park Municipal Swimming Pool of their childhood days, the answer would be “Cold!” 

 I started going there when I was a kid, just like most of my friends. It was probably when I was entering the second grade so that would have been around 1953. I don’t remember who I went with the first time, but it was probably my brother Don, who was three years older than me. 

One of my oddest memories of swimming in the ice cold water was the food I still associate with those memories. Frito Corn Chips became my affordable snack of choice while visiting the pool, and today, even the smell of them can transport my thoughts back to that place and time.  I remember that it cost 10 cents to get in to swim. It seems like everything we did as kids cost 10 cents. You waded through a foot-washing pool full of warm water as you left the locker room. This was the last time you could actually feel your toes as you and headed out to the big ice-cold pool. Even though the signs said you had to shower before you entered the pool, very few did because the shower’s water was always as cold as the pool’s. The pool itself was always so cold to me that I usually ended up shivering. 

 Though it does not look as high in this picture as it did to a child in real life, I thought it was so scary to go up on the high-dive board, but I did it. Once I would get up there, the only way down was to jump, and it took all the guts I had to do that. I’d be up there looking out at the pool and all the people below me and knowing they were all watching me to see if I was going to chicken out. I never did, but I wanted to - many times.

Escoe German Beatty remembers taking the bus to downtown and then walking down to the pool.  Her family moved to Huntsville in '59 just before school started for the seventh grade so her first pool time there had to be in the summer of '60.  She can still remember the feeling of walking into the locker room at the pool and the instant smell of chlorine filling her nostrils. She also remembers the wire baskets issued to put "valuables" in and the little safety pins with the number of the basket on it to wear while swimming. The sound of WAAY radio was always blasting over the speakers while we swam.  The lower spring boards were fun but it took real courage to dive off the high dive.  “I did a swan dive off it one day and dear, sweet Jed Stephens told me it was great...I was so proud!”

 Vern Lucas would sometimes walk down from his house on Humes Avenue with Jerry Brewer, Gary Kinkle, and others and play basketball and go swimming in the icy cold water of the pool. It was fed directly from Big Spring. 

The pool closed early in the summer of 1962 when there was a drought and there wasn't enough water for the pool and the city's needs. Over the next winter the City installed a full filter system at the pool and, while it did save water and allowed it to remain open all summer, the aurora of shivering “blue bodies” emerging from the icy cold spring water was gone forever. 

I asked my Artificial Intelligence program to colorize the swimming pool picture and it gave me this.

Below are the song options for this week's AI song.

“Big Spring Days”

Music Created By Tommy Towery With AI Music Generator

Huntsville summers, a blistering sky,

Big Spring's Swimming Pool where the cool waters lie,

Frito chips crunched in the heat of the day,

Sunburn peeling, but we’d laugh anyway.

[Chorus]

Oh, Big Spring Swimming Pool days,

Where we’d dive and dream,

Freezing cold water, like a mountain stream,

High board daring, hearts pounding fast,

Those Big Spring days—they’ll always last.

[Verse 2]

The lifeguard’s whistle, sharp as a knife,

Saved more than swimmers, maybe saved my life.

Swimming suits faded, chlorine and time,

We were just kids, but the world felt sublime.

[Prechorus]

The high dive stood like a tower of fear,

One step closer, the crowd would cheer.

[Chorus]

Oh, Big Spring Swimming Pool days,

Where we’d dive and dream,

Freezing cold water, like a mountain stream,

High board daring, hearts pounding fast,

Those Big Spring days—they’ll always last.

[Bridge]

Frito crumbs on a towel in the sun,

Every big dive felt like the last one.

The echoes of laughter, the splashes and screams,

Still ripple through my memory’s streams.

The Wayback Machine

"Radar Men from the Moon"

 Chapter 3 - Bridge of Death

We continue the serial this week, just like they did back in the movies during our times.

"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"

Brian Hyland

"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" is a novelty song telling the story of a shy girl wearing a revealing polka dot bikini at the beach. It was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and first released in June 1960 by Brian Hyland.

At a time when bikini bathing suits were still seen as too risqué to be mainstream, the song prompted a sudden takeoff in bikini sales. It is credited as being one of the earliest contributors to the acceptance of the bikini in society. The early 1960s saw a slew of surf movies and other film and television productions that rapidly built on the song's momentum.

Hyland's version hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 8, 1960, and sold over a million copies in the US.

I might be a little late responding to comments and questions sent this week due to a problem with my internet equipment, but don't worry because I will catch up next week.

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Delores McBride Kilgore, LHS '66,  "Thank you, Tommy, for the memories !"

James (Jim) Pierce, LHS '64, "Thanks so much Rainer for the band trip memorize . Though not an official band member I was allowed to accompany the band and have very fond memories (though not as sharp) of the trip. A wonderful occasion for all included.

Lost my beautiful wife of 54 years, Peggy Towery Pierce (LHS Class of '68) on April 17 of this year. She and I throughly enjoyed many LHS Reunions and love seeing ya'll around town."