Swim Park Memories

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Nothing struck fear into a young boy like the high dive tower at Blakely's. Or perhaps you preferred the water slide at Maple Plunge. But to a young man, Lake Millerton or Lost Lake was the destination. Remember the ice rink in Pinedale? Post your favorite Summer Activity here.
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Guest

Re: Fresno Swim Park - 1950's

Post by Guest » Thu Aug 07, 2014 4:12 pm

Don, I worked at Swim Park in restaurant for Morris McGlaflin two summers then two for John Kelly the pool owner as a life guard . Before that we went to Swim Park often. I have no recollections of a wooden island there. It was concrete. Left side was high dive, middle had a sixteen foot tower, right side had a low spring board. Only one slide was there. If you can correct me I'm interested in learning. ty JP

skitt
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swim park

Post by skitt » Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:45 pm

I only discovered this site by accident. What a wonderful accident! My family lived in Fresno in the early to late fifties, and my brother and I enjoyed walking by ourselves from Princeton, across Fresno street, across Blackstone ave to what I only remember as Swim Park. There was a billboard cutout of a woman in a swan dive pose and she was wearing a swim cap

We took swimming lessons there, and I still remember being able for the first time to swim out to the center island where ther were diving boards and a curly slide. Awesome memories! I would love to have some pictures of the billboard, and any other pictures of this place so rooted in my fondest of memories. My younger brother is mentally ill and has become a recluse; and I am hoping that these pictures might help him recover some of himself. If anyone has access to any such resource, and could possibly make these pictures available to me for copying or whatever, please make a posting in this forum. I would truely appreciate it. We live in Washington state now, but I will never forget those years.

Dave

Re: Fresno Swim Park - 1950's

Post by Dave » Wed Feb 18, 2015 4:31 pm

Hello folks! I know all about Swim Park. It was located just north of Clinton on the west side of Blackstone, in-between Terrace and Harvard. Two local physicians owned it and hired my grandfather Pat Kelly to manage it. My uncle, John Kelly was the head lifeguard. The pool was very large and round, which was a great design because if little kids fell in it was only 18" all the way around. It did have 2 kiddie pools, one one the south side and one on the north side.

It was constructed of concrete with a concrete island almost in the middle, it was position slightly to the west; and yes, it had a low dive, high dive and the tower. It also had only 1 slide mounted in the pool just south of the island, which was also great because if you fell off the ladder you landed in water. It opened around 1950 and close around 1960. It did have a 1 restaurant. Does anyone remember when you ordered fries, you covered them with mustard and not catsup! Back in those days pouring catsup on your fries was a sin! To this day I still eat my fries with mustard. Because my family ran Swim Park, I was there almost daily all summer long. Great memories!

Lost Fresno
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Re: Fresno Swim Park - 1950's

Post by Lost Fresno » Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:00 pm

Hey Dave, great to have "Mr. Swim Park" here, we are honored indeed. Do you have any photos to share from back in the day? If you do, I would be happy to assist you in uploading them or if you only have hard copies, I could even scan them for you.

regards,
Lost Fresno admin

skitt
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Re: Fresno Swim Park - 1950's

Post by skitt » Wed Mar 18, 2015 8:36 am

Yeah, me too. If anyone has any photos of swim park inside or out, and particularly the sign of the woman in the bathing cap with her arms uplifted for a swan dive; I would sure like to get my hands on some! Photos, not the woman. Me and Jeff my brother swam there every day during summer vacation. Give me an e-mail or something!

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