Summer swimming at Redwood High for 15 cents!

JasonLewis · Status: Offline

RE: Summer swimming at Redwood High for 15 cents!

R54 · Status: Offline

My first encounter with the pools at Redwood was my freshmen year in 1968 during gym class. Being a freshmen was bad enough but swimming in gym class was worst due to the swim suits. The first time my gym class heard we would be swimming for 4 weeks we all this was going to be fun but that soon changed. I remember the coach telling us all to get a suit out of some large basket in the locker room. They were faded cotton speedo type suits with a draw string waist and must have been the same suits from when Redwood opened. Well we all got are suit's a M size for me and headed for the pools. Now the coach has us jump in the pool. Now my M suit has gone to XXXL when wet along everyone else's suit. Now there are 25 kids pulling on the draw strings if they had one to keep the suit on, That didn`t do anything for the crotch that felt like it was hanging to my knees. Then the girls gym class comes in, and we had 4 weeks to go of this. I wore 2 suits after that. Now that's my memory of the pools at Redwood.

JPRO · Status: Offline

We did the Red cross swiming at Drake...then we all swam in the afternoon for. $. 25 Redwood DOES have a diving board ...However... in Oct. of this year the pool will be dug up and an additional gym will be built where the diving pool is now and a state of the art huge new pool will go where the lap pool and bleachers are.
Jay

cat · Status: Offline

I'm not sure, but I think I read that the Larkspur whistle is being repaired and is due to be put back soon. I think it said that it would only go off at 5pm.
Too bad, part of the St. Pat's school lunchtime experience was knowing the whistle was going to blast and scare the crap out of you, but not knowing exactly when!

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

Paul wrote:

When I worked for San Rafael they had an old air raid siren
in storage , they asked me if I wanted it , I walked over to it
and tried to pick it up . It must have needed a crane to move
it. I said " now what on earth could I do with this ? no thanks.

Far be it from me to make light of anyone else's obsessions, but while I was doing research for my Larkspur site I admit to being flabbergasted when I stumbled across this site. The guy's not merely a fan of alarm horns in general, but of the diaphone in particular. That's the species of the Larkspur fire whistle, which is featured rather prominently in various parts of the site, particularly in the Sounds & Video section. There's even a clip from the fire-call segment of "Impact" (from which I filched the sound clip for my "Impact" pages). Also, check out his clip from the classic 1956 sci-fi film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and see if it doesn't remind you of something. Gave me a chill when I first saw the flick way back when (and I'm not talking about the pod people).

-- Edited by Paul Penna at 04:04, 2007-04-25

Paul · Status: Offline

Hi Paul P.
Looks like I made a typo there , I might of been thinking of where it
was and how many people needed. Cool picture of the old small
truck. When I worked for San Rafael they had an old air raid siren
in storage , they asked me if I wanted it , I walked over to it
and tried to pick it up . It must have needed a crane to move
it. I said " now what on earth could I do with this ? no thanks.

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

Paul wrote:

I heard that the number of blasts would signal where the
fire was and where it was ( hearsay ) , but I beleive it.

Actually, that's the way it worked when I was a kid in Larkspur in the fifties. The signal the whistle (horn) blew corresponded to the number of the nearest fire alarm box. Check out this page in my Larkspur Gallery for a bit more info, and be sure to click the link that shows a card distributed to residents by the LVFD showing the location of the boxes. Also, a pic of the LVFD in action c.1960.

Note that on the card they show two important phone numbers at the top: first, the fire dept., second, the Rose Bowl. The latter was the way the FD paid for itself in the pre-1956 days, being a privately-run outfit.

-- Edited by Paul Penna at 02:58, 2007-04-24

Paul · Status: Offline

I forgot about the 8;00 horn , but I remember the 12;00 and 5:00 horns in Mill Valley
and Corte Madera also. In Stinson Beach they still have the 12:00 and 5:00
siren , in Stinson the 12:00 siren is the " Beer Bell "
All these horns do mark important times of the day , but actually they are
also were excercising and testing the fire horns daily. In the old days
we relied much more on volunteer firefighters and didn't have radio pagers
and phones , I heard that the number of blasts would signal where the
fire was and where it was ( hearsay ) , but I beleive it.

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

They used to sound the Larkspur fire whistle (for that's what we always called it) three times a day, first at 8 AM. I also remember when the St. Pat's bell was a real bell. I don't know the older history behind it, but all through my childhood in Larkspur it never rang. I do recall it being a novelty when they started in, my guess is the very late 50s or early 60s. When they replaced it with the electronic one, I thought it was an abomination.

MEADOWVALLEYKID · Status: Offline

I don't know if they still sound the horn at noon. I had to move out of Marin. (to expensive) I remember going to mass at St. Pats and everytime they went off I would jump sky high. As for the bells I do miss them. I live in the city know and everyonce in a while I will hear the bells from Mission Delores.

If anyone knows if the horn still goes off at noon and 5 and if St Pats still rings the bells please let us know.

Thanks

Paul · Status: Offline

That's cool , tell me Meadowvalleykid , do they still sound the horns at 12:00 and 5:00
in Larkspur. The 12:00 horn used to be the time we were let out of High School ,
and the 5:00 horn was the " Beer Bell " I have heard of people complaining about
the church bells of St.Patricks on Sunday mornings.
Can you imagine if they allowed trains back into Marin. The sound of metal wheels
on metal tracks are like an earthquake , and the electronic enunciators at each
intersection ( required by law ) are super loud. And the air horns are 50 times
as loud as the fire horns. Even if the train doesn't actually enter Larkspur ,
the complaints in San Rafael and Novato most likely will shut down the train
even if it is approved. It's true , after being rejected 8 times they are
convinced they are going to " Ramrod " the project through this time.
Now people complain about windmill noise in West Marin , think about the
impacts of a train in Marin when it comes time to vote in Nov. VOTE NO on RR.

MEADOWVALLEYKID · Status: Offline

I remember all of that. Oh my god that brings back a lot of memories. As for the lady who wanted the Larkspur fire dept. to stop sounding the noon horn. Move somewhere else or put your baby down at a different time. The noon and 5:00 horn are a part of Larkspur history.

Kt · Status: Offline

I lived on Diane ln behind Redwood, I could see the tennis courtts from my backyard. I swam at redwood everyday and at night twice a week, it was a hop skip and jump from my house. Ah! the good ole days!

cat · Status: Offline

I remember taking Red Cross swimming lessons at Redwood's pool in the early '70's. When we went there for fun, we jumped off the diving board. They also had the high dive, for those brave enough.

No more diving boards at Redwood these days...

yup, the 5 o'clock whistle. I used it too. A few years back, some person that had recently moved into Larkspur tried to get them to stop blowing the noon time whistle, because it woke her baby up from it's nap.

mikezee · Status: Offline

In the mid-60's summertime, if you were a kid growing up in Madera Gardens, you grabbed a few friends and walked or rode your stingrays along the dirt road by the slough behind lakeside drive to Redwood High, where for 15 cents you could spend the whole day swimming. If you were lucky you had an extra 10 cents to buy a snowcone from the vending machine located at the entrance to the locker rooms - when you heard the five o'clock whistle from the Larkspur fire station, it was time to head home. Who needed a watch back then -what a life!