Hi Troy - I have been searching the Internet for photos of Soupy's Lakeside Pool. I cannot believe having spent so many summers there, I didn't take a single photo. Any chance your family would post the photo of the exterior sign? And maybe some of the pools? Thanks so much.

I also took lessons at LakeSide and later (1965 to 1969) I think opened up and helped with teaching and guarding. Who remembers the Scotties logcabin? Or the Mountain Dew guys? Or painting the pools? I also set the record for two events there; one breath 5 laps. And one breath a minute for an hour holding onto the main drain. Remember the money toss? So many good memories. Sandra and Debbie and Bruce? I worked for one dollar, free swim and an icecream bar. Still in swimming pool business to this day. Thank you everyone whom posted something about Pools in Fresno. There was one also on the corner of N. DelMar and somewhere around Rialto? Once a week they would drain it and fill with very cold water! Also swam a lot at Bullard high school and once in awhile Hoover High. I must have swam in all of them, I think. I remember the trip on the back of the trailer around the lake to dump trash. Fished in the lake and climbed the Mulberry tree at the creek and ate mulberries. On the corner southeast of Blackstone and Shaw was a bar that we would raid playing SwampFox.

Our family moved into the neighborhood across Bullard Ave from Lakeside's eventual location when the houses were built in 1955. Most of our dads were WWII vets buying houses with CalVet loans. Lakeside was on the south side of Bullard and just east of Blackstone and east of the eucalyptus grove on the SE corner of Bullard and Blackstone. We kids took swimming lessons from Soupy in the 1960s and had a summer pass, so we swam at the pool almost every day. The "Lake" was the water-filled middle of the auto racetrack adjacent and south of Lakeside. I remember the auto races back in the 1950s and huge 4th of July fireworks shows. After the lake was filled some friends and I would tie large branches together and float in this raft around the shallow lake, sometimes catching blue gill. We spent many summer days there.

On the NE corner of Blackstone and Bullard was Dominic's small grocery store, Ken's barber shop and a beauty shop. Dominique was a jolly proprietor and friendly to us kids. His store had a tube-tester which came in handy when our old TV needed a replacement, which was quite often. These businesses were just north from the corner gas station (Chevron). A Texaco station was on the NW corner and a Shell on the SW corner of Blackstone and Bullard. An old independent store/gas station was right at the SE corner, but abandoned fairly early and eventually Montgomery Ward developed the whole corner. A few eucalyptus trees remain.

When we moved there in 1955, we were the only neighborhood amidst the fields and orchards of the general area which at the time was in the county. I remember one week when our car was inoperable, walking with my dad all the way to McMillan's grocery story at Shaw and Blackstone. There were no businesses along Blackstone at the time. In the other direction, Pinedale was a little, thriving community NW of Herndon and Blackstone. It is amazing to visit Fresno now and see the development all the way to the River.

Need to correct a previous error: Soupy was not a Pearl Harbor Survivor

Hi Lakeside and Holmes fans: Today is June 30, 2012, and tomorrow is July 1, 2012-- more importantly known as Vernice Holmes' 95th birthday! She was part owner of Soupy's Lakeside Pools and the first manager of The Kennel Bookstore at Fresno State. A small group of us are meeting her for lunch at Yosemite Falls on Blackstone just north of Shaw at 1:30 tomorrow. Stop by if you'd like to see her.

Soupie Holmes was a great guy. He was my 5th grade teacher, mid 50's, at Lafayette Elementary School. He also refereed Fresno State Football. In the late '50 we lived directly across the street from Lakeside pool, where the Energy House is now. I worked for Pitch and Putt golf course which was next to Lakeside. In the back of the property was a old race track that was filled (partially) with water. It seemed Mr. Holmes remembered every kid he ever taught.

It was Lakeside. I worked for Soupie in the early 60's. I also lived directly across the streed from there. There was the 2 pools, 1 for lessons and 1 for regular swimming with a high dive and a low dive. There was also a small 9 hole pitch and put golf course and a lake. I also remember wrecking Soupie's old 1940 green 2 door Ford coupe. I was taking trash from the pool that morning to the other side of the lake where we use to dump the trash and I hit a tree while pulling an old trailer he had. I ran into Soupie on the beach in Hawaii when I was stationed there in the Marine Corp in 1966. He was a great person to me and I will never forget the wonderful times I had there.

Mike Quercia
Ogden, Utah

Soupie was the owner it was called lake side pool , wonderland was at Blackstone and Shaw behind the old Blackstone Bowl. I use to go to both sure miss those days!

Lakeside. Oh the memories. Soupy taught me how to swim in the early 1960s and my mom managed the pool in the late 60s (she opened up and ran the concession stand and collected admissions). She was on very good terms with the Pinedale kids, who could be rough at times--those were the days of the Pinedale-Clovis feud, complete with gang rumbles. The pool was neutral ground, and the kids stood by my mom when the Clovis cowboys would show up looking for trouble. At any given time, she'd have a collection of chains, brass knuckles, switchblades and the odd pistol checked at the concession stand.

Soupy also sold fireworks during the summers off from Ernie Pyle Elementary. He was the Freedom Fireworks distributor in the Fresno area for many years. As another poster mentioned, Vernice managed the Kennel Bookstore at Fresno State for many years. She retired in the mid 1970s. Soupy lost most of his eye sight after being knocked down while refereeing Muni League basketball.

In the late 1850's and early 1960's, My buddies and I spent as many Saturdays & Sundays as we could get our parents to let us, fishing at Lakeside in the big pond. This was a big deal because someone had to drive us out there from SE Fresno, drop us off and then pick us up. We bought fishing supplies and goodies to eat and sodas from Dominick's Liquor on the NW corner of Blackstone and Bullard. We cough a lot of Bluegill, Bass, and Crappie from that pond. It had a berm that was about ten feet tall and about that wide at the top going all around the circular, or oval pond. I believe we had been told many times that it had been a racetrack before being filled with water. A caretaker would charge us 50 cents each for fishing. Sometimes he didn't show up.

In the winter, on the foggy days, we could get away with building fire on the berm to keep warm. That was when the crappie fishing was at it's best. My biggest fish, of which I still have a photo, was a 3 1/4 pound bass. I think we only went to the pool one time out of curiosity. We preferred Blakely's pool out on West Tulare Ave, on the big property right just before you get to Clovis Ave. It was the site of an old mansion complete with a circular driveway lined with olive trees, and a old winery way in the back. It was later converted to a large complex which stands there today. I don't remember any pond, but the property was backed up against the canal called Fancher creek. For a young teenager, Blakely's was the best possible place to hang out in the summer, for the entry price, went from 60 to 75 cents, you get your hand stamped and could come and go all day, and hang out on the grass in the picnic area and visit with people who dropped by to visit and hang out. I still think of Blakeley's every time I see a bikini.