By Jerry Robinson 
 
    In case you have forgotten, hot summer days still happen here and will again. Many kids in Burien will run through sprinklers or frolic on slip & slides. One thing they will not have is a local free pool.
 
     Normandy Park has a pool, Arbor Heights has a pool, Tukwila has a pool, Gregory Heights has a membership pool. Burien has a roller skate park. Burien used to have a pool on 153rd but that is now gone. You can't swim in Lake Hicks, too many toxins. Lakes are okay but are not very safe. 
 
         I had a close call when a friend let me take my kids to Lake Burien years ago. It is private and there is no lifeguard. Luckily my friend had an 8-foot dinghy with no oars at his dock. 

Son number one swam out too far and got in trouble. I raced over to the dock, grabbed the boat in a flash and was able to paddle with hands and arms to rescue him. Tragedy averted.

     The YMCA has a fabulous membership with two first class indoor swim pools. I sure wish we had one in Burien. Costly but it would help kids stay out of trouble. Swimming kept me out of trouble as a youth. 

     I was a Portland kid and we used to swim bare pickle in the Columbia River. Mostly just splashing or leaping from tree branches into the icy water. I was about eight and my brother Russell was ten. We hiked to the river for the day. When the streetcar went over the trestle we loved running out of the bushes, dancing and waving and showing off noodie cazoodie. It must have left passengers laughing and gasping before we escaped into the brush. 
 
We lived close to Portland's Peninsula Park pool. We called them swim tanks in those days. Some tanks had heated water but ours was filled with icy water from the Bull Run river which Portlanders use for drinking. The city must have strained the trout and salmon out first because we never saw any fish in the pool.
 
     The tank had a big stucco wall around the sides. The sun would heat up the wall to a sizzle. Great for warming up a shivering little body. You could lean your back on it if you did not mind having deep pock marks on your skin. I was both skinny and short. The wall had a 12-inch square hole near the bottom. Big kids used to play handball on the wall. The ball often entered that hole into the dark recesses of the wall.
 
     That is when the big kids came looking for me. They'd shove me into the pit. I groped around until I found their handball and tossed it back out. They never thanked me. But they never  drowned me either. I guess it is why I still like pools. 
 
     If Burien ever gets a pool kids will likely have to wear proper attire. Or not have a streetcar track go overhead.