Lake Michigan but the water takes so long to get warm and it was like jumping into ice water. But the waves were such fun. Other times we went to parks with small lakes and only once did I got to a pool when a kid. I never did a gravel pit but that is where hubby did all his swimming.

My favorite was Troxler Lake, a small man made lake surrounded by sand. Mostly we swam in my uncle's pond or a creek on our farm...which was fun but the bottom was kinda of icky.

The ocean in so CA. I also swam in the no CA waters cold tho.

My favorite place to swim was in a pool in West, Texas. West is about 15 miles north of my hometown of Waco. It's a huge pool with a kiddee pool that empties into the main pool and we started going there when I had to use the kiddee pool and continued through when I was a teenager. It had a large area that went from three feet deep to six foot, then dropped in one step to thirteen feet. There were four diving boards with a spring board on the side just inside the six foot line, then three boards at the far end with one a standard board, a five foot high board and a ten foot high board. It was a mark of growing up when you progressed to the higher boards. There was something special in the middle of the pool. We called it a flying saucer, but it was shaped like a top and was anchored to the bottom with a chain. If you were strong enough, you could grab the control ring on top and pull yourself on and spin the saucer. As often as we could, the kids in the neighborhood would talk our moms into taking us to West during the week to take in a day of fun. West was a Chech community and had bakeries and a meat market known for its meat. We'd get some ring baloney and rat cheese from the market and homemade bread and kolaches from the bakery. That was lunch after you got a Big Red from the pool concession stand. That's all we needed for a great day of fun.

Sounds like a fun place Foxy....We had a municipal pool in my home town also. Was the highlight of the summer months...After swimming we went to AL's Snack Shop,,,was a fun time,,,

Aww, what memories this topic conjures. We have a college in my hometown that had an indoor pool open to us kids, but our favorite place was 5 miles from town and we would ride to the county reservoir on our bikes. Swim all day with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in our satchel and have a nickel for an ice cream cone on the way home. When we were older we would drive to the Boonesboro River where a sandy area was for swimmers and have bonfires at night.

I lived in a resort community growing up so when all the people had left their cottages during the week the kids in town would visit their boat docks and rafts out in the lake and have a great time. We had alot to choose from.

But my most favorite spot was the little brook that ran past our house. It was quite deep and all sand. My friends would come down there on a hot summer day and we would float down stream going over rapids.

Forgot to mention that also was also one of the most embarrassing times of my life too. The boys were throwing us all in off the dock and someone went to grab my arm to throw me in and grabbed the top of my two piece swimsuit and it flipped all the way up----you never saw someone so quickly fly in the water.

I lived on a farm when I was young. We had a secluded cement dam (water conservation agncy) in a wooded area in a creek on the corner of our farm where our neighbor's property connected. We'd drive down there in our truck with a parent.

One day we were there with my Dad. It started pouring rain and hail so we all got under this huge bush that grew near the entrance to the dam. That's HOW we discovered that is was FULL of Poison Ivy!! Couldn't move for a week ~ We had poison ivy all through our bodies AND all through our family!!

NDY