Something strange happened today. I went to the pool at my apartment complex. On my way there I passed a group of Asian families (women and children) leaving. A few seconds later I passed a Hispanic family, also leaving. I get to the pool and the lifeguard, a nice, blond girl, is under an umbrella with some man looking at the chlorine tester. There are about 10 people at the pool, all white and I think all shade of blond. The reason I mention their race is because the lifeguard says to me, looking very uncomfortable, "The pool is closed."
I said, "Ok. Can I just lay out by the pool and read, then?" as I looked at the other people doing just that.
"Uhhhh...." says the lifeguard.
"No," says the white man with the tester. "When we close the pool, everyone has to leave the area."
Meanwhile the 10 people have not moved and appear not to be doing so anytime soon.
"Does the pool close every day at noon?" I ask the lifeguard.
She looks increasingly uncomfortable with my questions.
"No," answers the man. "We're having some trouble with the chlorinator, so we're shutting down the pool until we can work it out."
"In the past when there's been trouble with chlorine levels we've just been told not to go in the water," say I. (Who chrorinates during the middle of the day, anyway. Isn't that something you should do before the pool opens or after it closes?)
"You have to leave," responds the man.
I ask about the people already there and get no answer, only again that the pool is closed.
I know I'm white, but people never think I am because of my olive complexion and my name. So the entire experience wound up feeling like something out of movie set in the 1960s south.
3 comments:
That is frickin weird. You should find out what's up with that. Maybe they're mad at you personally, because you spurned that one maintenance guy?
Whoa. That is weird. I urge you to follow up on that (if you have time).
I went to the pool today without problem. It was my first time back since the previous incident. I don't know what that was about. I probably should have complained to the front office, which really likes me. But I'm not very good at making waves (no pun intended). That maintenance guy, by the way, has never resurfaced. THANK goodness! In the meantime the leasing manager waved my pet rent this year so the rent increase the owners of the complex enforced was negated. I had told them I was going to have to move, but they wanted me to stay. That was nice. Things like that don't usually happen to me.
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