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The Granville Historical Society Oral History Project 2001 - 2002
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14) Spring Valley Pool
The Game of “Dibble Dabble” at the Spring Valley Pool(Rob Drake) When summertime came around, our social life revolved pretty closely around Spring Valley swimming pool. When we first got here, the bottom of Spring Valley had not been cemented. So it was a mud-bottom pool and there was no beach like there is now. There was just a grassy area and then it kind of evolved into sand and then it went into water. So you’d sit up on the grass and when you’d get hot, you’d just run into the water. And really, disappear into the water, because there was no cement so it was very murky all the time. We would play a game called “Dibble Dabble” where one person would dive in with a Popsicle stick and go down to the bottom of the pool and swim under water and let go of the stick. Then he’d try to swim somewhere else [ still underwater – to fool his buddies on shore] and then come up. Everybody else on the shore would be looking for the stick and when they’d see it, they’d all jump into the water and fight to grab the stick. And it was really a great game in muddy water because you couldn’t see anything. You could NOT tell where the stick was until it actually popped up!
Snakes, Tadpoles and Picnics at the Spring Valley Pool(John Klauder) Back when I was a kid, Spring Valley Pool had all wood docks, a mud bottom and there was no filtration system that I can speak of. I remember that they’d get on a megaphone and say, ”Everybody out of the water! Everybody out of the water!” And Dick Roberts, who was one of the owners of Spring Valley at the time, would come out with his twenty-two shot gun and he’d have to go over to the wood docks and look under them and he’d often shoot a snake. He’d pick it up and he’d throw it up over the hedge row that’s still there. And then everybody was allowed back in the water again. I also remember going tadpole hunting at Spring Valley by the hour. It’s in the same area where the water is drained out presently. There was an overflow area and it was full of weeds and mud, but my buddies and I, we’d always get in there with buckets and get the tadpoles. Probably one of the more special events that happened at Spring Valley back then was most Sundays during the summer a bunch of families would get together at the shelter house for a potluck supper. And there’d be kids all over the place. We’d play Capture the Flag and Kick Ball and it was just a fun bringing together of people. That doesn’t happen any more. People just don’t have the time that they once had. |
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