Sex. Race. Class. Most of the social shifts in American culture have been mirrored in the waters of municipal pools. So how the story of the Hoyt Park pool plays out may hold a bigger place in history than any of us imagined.
If you’ve been eavesdropping on the conversation in the
Tosa Town Square, you’ll know that the Hoyt Park pool is a contentious issue for some.
There’s worry about crime and violence. Some imagine an influx of unnamed sinister groups or persons, while others suggest "you must mean black teenagers" (my words, not theirs). Then the debate swerves off into disputations about who is racist and who is not, whether this is about race or. . . something else.
There’s nothing new about this conversation, according to Jeff Wiltse, author of
Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America. Throughout their history, municipal pools served as stages for social conflict. Latent social tensions often erupted into violence at swimming pools because they were community meeting places, where Americans came into intimate and prolonged contact with one another. People who might otherwise come in no closer contact than passing on the street, now waited in line together, undressed next to one another, and shared the same water. The visual and physical intimacy that accompanied swimming made municipal pools intensely contested civic spaces. Americans fought over where pools should be built, who should be allowed to use them, and how they should be used. According to Wiltse, rather than resolving racial tensions, people began retreating from public places in the 1950s. By the 70s and 80s, backyard pool building took off, and the decline of public pools began.
I know about this because I heard Wiltse inteviewed on
National Public Radio, without which I would have no life.
The real question we're debating is whether we want to sustain a rich community life and the ongoing conversations among us. Or would we rather retreat to our fenced back yards and listen to conversations on the radio or in electronic forums?
There's a place for both. But kudos to everyone involved in the movement to rebuild the pool. Whether you know it or not, you’re making a historic statement about faith in civic life. Half naked and warmed by the sun, lying side by side, we just may get to know each other again.
