The Pool

I still remember the first day the pool opened - it was the summer of 85.  I was ten.  My mom had just spent three years fund raising every chance she could get and now her dreams were realized - Red Lake Falls would have a pool - a place where kids could swim safely.  Somewhere kids could hang out.


Mom was a member of the Pool Committee.  Every morning, she and dad would head over to the Brumwell house where they would discuss strategy on how to raise money for a public pool.  At the time, $150,000 was a lot of money.

We went to fairs, car shows, and parades selling chances to cars. My mom drove us all over town.  We went door to door selling chances on the cars.  We were recruits to the cause.  Once - that crazy committee even tried selling chances on a house - $100 a ticket.  That particular fund-raiser didn't quite work out.  Once the pool in Thief River opened up their waters for us to have a "Swim-a-Thon"  I earned a T-Shirt and the cap with a pom-pom on top each had the logo "I Helped Build the Red Lake Falls Pool"  Man, I was stylin' in that cap.

I remember that the Pool Committee was somewhat controversial.  I remember mom crying because people would shout things out her like "You're going to raise taxes!"  I remember classmates fathers giving her the finger. It was a hard core deal people.

And so - I remember the day my mom handed me the $1 and a towel.  She sent my sister and I on our bikes and we rode to the pool.  That summer would be the start of many summers of riding to the pool with a towel around my neck and a $1 clenched in my fist.