Here’s another entry in my series of pictures from The Columbus Dispatch. This photo appeared in the June 12 issue.
However, this one is ass backwards.
All clear | Lifeguard Alandra Scott, 20, of Dublin, monitors an empty lap pool during her shift at Worthington Pools in Worthington. Rain and clouds kept most swimmers at home yesterday, but clearer weather is expected to return on Wednesday.
[Photo credit: Abigail S. Fisher of the Dispatch]
I can see it now:
Swimmer: Help, help! I’m drowning!
Lifeguard: I’ll save you!
Swimmer: Hurry!
Lifeguard: Wait just a second. I cannot swim with my flip-flops on.
Sinker: Hurry!
Lifeguard: I’m taking them off now.
Sinker: I can’t keep my head . . .
Lifeguard: Here I come!
Drowner: Glug.
Of all the places where bare feet are normal, where they are encouraged, even here the mania has taken hold and somehow the lifeguard has gotten it in her head that she cannot get from the locker room to the lifeguard chair without “protection.”
It really makes you wonder sometimes.
We were at the pool at our local city park this past weekend… there was a guy sitting on the edge of the kiddie pool with his feet in the water and had his flip flops on… so far, all lifeguards on duty have been barefoot… but really wondering what the guy with his feet in the water thought he was accomplishing. You said it best, the mania has taken hold. Seems to have gone completely insane.
About 6 years ago, I took my son for swimming lessons at a local swim club in NJ. The pool was outside in a fenced area. While the kids were barefoot running around the pool area and going in and out of it, all the teenage girl instructors had a uniform of identical bathing suits, and – matching white flip flops. I watched in total disbelief as each one of them would take off their flip flops to go into the water, then whenever they got out of the water they would put them back on when walking even a few steps around the pool. Then they took them off again, leaving them on the pool ledge until they got back out again. This went on for the entire hour, with them constantly keeping track of where their flip flops were. Noe would take more than a step or two on the ground without putting those things on. I could not figure out if this was the requirement of some OCD employer, or was it their own mindless conformity.