Meet Ya at the Nat

A summer ritual for sure, many kids from all over Verdun would walk,bus,or ride their bike. Binches of us would walk the boardwalk to get to the Nat. We had a ball as kids, trying to swim the full width of the shallow pool underwater was always something you would try to do. Or climb up on the two water fountains and dive off (of course No Diving) was the rule and you could get kicked out but usually a warning was good enough to keep you from diving,but you still climbed on to it. The cement taht surrounded the pool was eaten up with towels laying there spread out for someone to have a dip then lay on the towel.And on the real hot days that cement was like walking on a frying pan, you quickly learned to walk where the dripping and splashes hadn't dried yet to cool your feet. Standing at the bottom of near the building and talking to friends who had already left to go to the rooftop restaurant, for a 5cent bag of chips or a toaasted hotdog.....maybe a soft drink if you had that much do-re-mi Usually we had a pass or coerced a parent to cough up some change to get in,swim, get a snack.then the trek home. Somedays you absolutely wanted to stay until the underwater lights came on.....oh that was cool swimming up to the ligh under water and staring into thos bright bulbs.......it was all just fun and memory's forever in our mind of a much simpler time. I haven't forgotten about the deep pool with it's diving boards and how we all eventually got the guts to jump from the high board. LOL