1954 – CHARLESTON, IL SWIMMING POOL ARTICLES

This article about the swimming pool must have been around about this time of year as the first thing mentioned is about changing the time and losing an hour of sleep.  I am pretty sure it is from 1954.

What I like about this article is the part where it states that P. B. Hutton, my grandfather, suggested an addition of a park and the grassy area west of the pool fenced in along with the pool.  In fact, I love that he did!  When I use to go to the pool, I thought that this was great because you could take your snack in that area and stay out of the sun for awhile to help prevent burn.  You could dry off and visit with friends and get rid of some of the shriveling due to being waterlogged.  Haha.

My very best memories and greatest times were when they booked bands to play in that area in the evenings.  You could go there with your friends, listen to music, dance, just talk or whatever.  It was a great opportunity for young people to hang out.  So, to me,  that makes it very neat that my grandfather suggested the idea for the grassy area! There was not much in town in the way of entertainment for the young people and music and dancing was my favorite thing.  I have shared those memories with my children when they were young and bored and my wishes that they had that same opportunity but the city did not offer much for the young people.

Wow.  I found this interesting.  All employees of Charleston received a 10% wage increase.  All except for the employees of the swimming pool. These employees felt they should receive an increase too so the pool was closed until further notice.

I also noticed in the article that employees is continually spelled as employes.  I had mentioned this in one prior article in a previous blog that the spelling of employee was incorrect.  They did spell it correctly in the title, however. I question why they keep spelling this incorrectly.

Do you think that perhaps this was the first strike in Charleston?  Haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading these articles.  Please feel free to post your memories of the swimming pool or whatever else you would like to!