Saturday, August 8, 1925

Saturday, August 8, 1925

Felt a little more peppy, so cleaned up my house early and had the boys bathed and ready to go to the Ripple with Daddy to swim as soon as he got home. Albert was so crazy to go, he fell down the front steps watching for Daddy and skinned one side of his face all up. Daddy gave them one good time to last all season.

("Daddy" refers to Grandma's husband, Gilbert. (Since Gilbert died in the 30's and was never known by his grandchildren, I have a hard time referring to him as "Grandpa". Yet, since I knew Grandma, I feel weird referring to her as Ruth, so early on I decided just to call them Grandma and Gilbert in my comments. Though sometimes when I talk about Grandma being pregnant, I wonder if people reading the diaries think that is weird. I may have to post a link over on Grandma's Pictures with a run down of who is who so people can refer to it to figure out who everyone is as they read the diaires. I know not everyone is reading "from the beginning", which is a post on Feb. 12, 2006 for Feb. 12, 1925.)

Anyway, regarding swimming, Grandma wrote in the family history that even though Gilbert was "crippled" by a childhood illness that left one leg shorter than the other, such that he had to use a cane to walk and wear a shoe with a built up sole on it, he was quite the swimmer and as a boy, rescued another friend from drowning.

I've also picked up that Gilbert often worked Saturday mornings at the gas company where he was an accountant. Perhaps he worked this Saturday to get month end reporting done?

Finally, I don't think they all bathed every day, so I found it odd she would have the boys bathe before they went swimming. But maybe even in 1925 they understood enough about germs to post signs at the pool "Please shower before entering the pool" like they do today? I wonder how they treated the water in the pool? The Ripple she refers to would be a pool in Broad Ripple on the northeast side of Indianapolis. They lived on the near east side so would have taken a bus to to get there.

I did some checking, and though Broad Ripple Park was listed as opening in 1946, there was a pool at that location that was used for the Olympic tryouts in 1924. Must have been a nice pool!)