track 8: every breath you take

Despite the fact that The Police album Synchronicity came out in 1983, I remember the song "Every breath you take" still being pretty popular during one of the summers I worked at the Miami Springs Pool. I think I was there some time during the summers of 1985-86 and then again during the summer of 1988 or 89. I recall sitting up at the front window, looking out onto the street as someone's Police cassette played in the radio. Miami Springs is a small city in the northern part of Miami-Dade County. My mom worked nearby and my dad, who used to work a lot with the different parks and recreation departments in the county, had gotten me involved in volunteering over the summer as a teacher's aide for swimming lessons. The last summer I would actually get paid by working as a cashier on top of that. Every day I'd wake up and go with my mom who worked sort of nearby. I'd usually get there at 7:30, I think, and typically the first thing I'd do is put my stuff in my cubbyhole (I was already an insane reader back then and inevitably had a book, usually a Choose Your Own Adventure title) and run and dive into the cool blue water. Beginning at 8:00 in the morning we taught three swimming classes, each with a different section from Beginners to Advanced, and I worked with all the different levels. My favorite lesson to help out with was with the Advanced Swimmers and involved bringing in extra clothes to wear while jumping off the high board and then learning to use your clothes as makeshift floating devices. The third class of the day, however, was the absolute worst. The 10:00 session was when the kids from The Recreation Center across the pool would come in for their lessons. These kids were obnoxious and the pool was crowded with hooligans. After the lesson was over, they got to stay for 45 minutes or so of "free swim!" At 11:30 they went back to the Rec Center and the pool was closed until 1, when we opened for regular business. Some days I would walk down Westward Drive (or riding with my friend Amy in her red VW Bug that I coveted!) to this place called Artie's Subs. I'd order a steak sub with nothing on it. It was absolutely amazing and the last time I tried to go there for a nostalgic sandwich, it was gone.


[omg the high dive is gone?!?]

Most of the time, I would take advantage of the extra 90 minutes of having an Olympic sized swimming pool to myself! No line for the high dive! It was pretty much what I imagine heaven will be like. While out there on my own, I'd play the radio that we employees had plugged in at the window, facing out onto the pool.

However, the alternate track for this memory could have been... "Pumpin' and blowin'" from a little movie I like to call The Pirate Movie.


Once in a while, a few of us would go catch a movie after swimming lessons & if no one had to work when the pool re-opened at 1. Literally the only movie I remember seeing (and wanting to see again) was The Pirate Movie. Which was an 80s musical inspired by The Pirates of Penzance. With Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol. And yes, I had the soundtrack.