As a kid in North Tonawanda, every summer morning in 1988 was the same ritual. I would stretch on my purple swimsuit, still damp from the night before, roll up my towel, tuck it under my arm and slam through the screen door on my way to the Memorial Pool.
It was a two-block trip, waving to the watchful elders sitting on porches or working in gardens, and keeping an eye out for the Monarch butterflies that seemed to be everywhere in those days. A tangle of bicycles thrown down under the big willow tree signaled that my friends had beat me to Payne Park and I’d usually find them pumping away on the swings, trying to make it over the top bar.
Together, we’d make our way to the giant, brick, above-ground pool and, though my friends had seen it a million times, I’d always point to my great-uncle’s name on the plaque outside the entrance: “Built by Joseph M. Wrazin,” my grandma’s brother. It was the most prestige a working-class kid from the avenues could get.
Built just after World War II as a memorial to the veterans, the pool was designed by noted engineer Wesley Bintz. Its patented design, with locker rooms on the first floor, made it easier and less expensive to build and maintain than other models, according to Tegan Baiocchi, an architectural historian in Michigan. To this day, when I smell chlorine, all I can picture are those locker rooms. I can still hear the slam of the metal lockers and the echo of my friends’ laughter bouncing off the walls.
I taught myself to dog paddle in the 3-foot-deep shallow end, when I was young enough that my teenage sister, Loree, would…
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