Memories of the Jones Beach Pool and Mello-Rolls

Many early Levittowners have fond memories, some 50 or more years later, of fun times spent at nearby Jones Beach. The picture of four-year old Marilyn Monsrud Frese triggers remembrances for the 1963 Division Avenue High School graduate. She still lives in Levittown.

"The photo of me in the Jones Beach chair (note the sea horse JB logo), eating one of those ice cream cones they used to sell with the ice cream roll wrapped in paper, was after a little mishap I had in the Jones Beach pool," she said. "I knew how to swim thanks to the Levittown pools, so my parents decided to enter me in a swimming race at the Jones Beach pool."

Marilyn got into the water, as the race began, and discovered that she could reach the bottom with her little feet. "So I decided I would walk my way across the pool. Being I wasn't a fast swimmer, I figured that would be a better way to get to the other side quicker. What I didn't know was that the pool got deeper in the middle."

So away Marilyn walked with all the parents cheering their kids on. "As my head went under, I remember thinking, okay I'll come up again soon. So I kept right on walking and walking and walking until my dad jumped in and pulled me out. I guess the lifeguards didn't notice I was missing. Then mom and dad bought me that ice cream because I was crying that they didn't let me finish the race."

That picture was snapped about 60 years ago. "Funny how I can remember stuff like that, but can't remember half of my graduating class," she said. Bob Seger summed it up when he wrote and sang, "It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago."

For more from Frank Barning, visit his blog "Early Levittown and Beyond": http://theworldaccordingtofrankbarning.blogspot.com/.