pool #1 hamilton fish pool

Hamilton Fish Pool Photography by Damon Winter / The New York Times

So the first cab off the rank is Hamilton Fish Pool. It is on the Lower East Side. I arrived there after work one hot, hot day to find it closed. This didn't really faze me because in my search for swimming pools I generally meet hurdles. Like the day I went to swim at Lasker Pool in Central Park only to find that the pool was closed. Because there had been an iddy bitty bit of thunder about. And the rule is: 'The pool will be closed for one full hour from the moment that you hear the last rumble of thunder.' I think the Germans built the swimming pools in NYC as there are rules upon rules upon rules. 

So at Hamilton Fish Pool I met the woman at the gate.

'Is the pool closed?'

'Yeah'

'Is it going to open back up?'

'Yeah, well I dunno. We've had a little accident. So we are closed while we clean the blood out of the pool.' 

She said this like it happened most days.

A little wait though and then it was into the no-longer blood-streaked pool. 

At 7pm some of the NYC pools close to the kids and allow the adults in for lap swimming. This seems to be a subtle form of racial segregation as it makes sure the blacks swim during the day and the whites swim in the evening. Because of course only white people swim for fitness. 

So in my lily whites hopped. 

Hamilton Fish Pool actually does have lanes. As well as black lines on the floor of the pool to keep you swimming in a somewhat straight line. We take this for granted in Australia.

I looked for a spare lane and decided to swim closest to the edge of the pool on the southern side. Pretty soon into the laps I realised my school boy error. I swam my first lap with relative ease and then the second I felt like I was swimming uphill. This is no mean feat. Imagine swimming uphill.

I was swimming and thinking and then I realised that the pool was so shallow (I would say about 3 feet) that with the amount of people swimming laps in the pool the water was being forced against the edges. Creating waves. Big waves that hit the sides and then engulfed me being the first thing they hit on their way back. Great for fitness. Not so great for pleasure. I felt a little like that child at the graduation.

And then the swim was over. Refreshing. Only a few band-aids seen. The change rooms were kinda like subway dungeons. Damp, definately rats living in every odd numbered locker. But then again it is free. And rats live in New York too.