I was a very unruly, wild, and untamed little girl and teenager. As a matter of fact, I was still pretty wild up until my mid-twenties. How untamed was I? So much so that when I was a teenager, I put myself and two friends in harm’s way.
It was an unbearably hot and humid day with temperatures reaching the high nineties even after the sun went down. There was a public pool called Cypress Pool on Jamaica Avenue. The pool was locked up for the night but I got the idea that all three of us should climb the fence and go swimming. We all agreed. It was so hot outside we didn’t care if we jumped in with our clothes on.
As soon as we jumped in the pool and started splashing around, we heard dogs barking and people talking loudly. All these sounds were getting closer and closer to us. Two large German Shepards reached the edge of the pool and they were growling, snarling, barking and showing their teeth. We thought we were going to be attacked by them.
Owners of the pool, this older couple, called off the dogs and told us to get out of the water immediately! We thought we would be arrested for trespassing. We got out of the pool and we were told to get on our way and never break into a public pool after it is closed for the night again.
The confrontation with the two guard dogs and the couple who owned the pool really tamed me. I kept wondering what if the couple wasn’t there to call the dogs off? No matter how hot the nights of summer got after that, I never tried to break into and go swimming in a public pool.
Ellen
