A Maplewood Summer Absurdity - Adult Swim

I love the Maplewood Pool and you probably do too. It's one of the best public pools I've ever been to. I especially love the dive tank.

But there's one really dumb thing they do at the pool: adult swim.

Several times a day - I'm not sure of the exact schedule - kids are ordered out of the pool for a while. Incredibly, almost all the adults typically leave too. After all, they're probably in there playing with their kids. What's usually left is a small number of older swimmers, although few of them are actually swimming. Nearby is a typical picture from today.

A few minutes before this picture was taken, the main pool was filled with young and old having a good time.

At these times the training pool, meant for kids up to about 6 years old, fills up with adults and older kids, as does the line for the snack bar. Perhaps that's what it's all about: selling ice cream. Sometimes we're lucky enough that they open the dive tower.

If the point of adult swim is to rid the pool of pesky children then I'm not all that sympathetic. But if that's the case, it can still be accomplished less extremely by putting another divider in the pool and letting kids have half of the shallow end.

I imagine things have been this way for a long time and there must be people who like it and don't want any change. I don't know any of them, but they must be there, mustn't they?

It couldn't be this way just because nobody has thought to challenge it, could it?