It was 30 years ago today...

No, I'm not talking about Sargeant Pepper...

As I took a walk around the campus at work I was struck by how frackin' hot it is outside and how it's the type of day that I tend to hate now as I'd rather it be more cool or mild than so unbearably hot.  I was thinking that the last time I ever really enjoyed this sort of heat was around 30 or so years ago, back when my butt was firmly planted in a lifeguard's chair working at a pool (rec center not far from my hometown).  I enjoyed that job, even though I wound up losing it fairly early on because I was seen as disrespectful of a witchy mom that demanded that we open a pool that we'd closed for cleaning on a terribly overcast and cold day.  That particular pool was a bit more shallow and perhaps a little safer for youngsters, though that didn't excuse parents of the need to watch their children as they swam since the children might venture into deeper waters and put themselves in danger.

As it turned out, that mother, like hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands, of others seemed to think that a lifeguard's job is to babysit their little brats while they (the mothers) sit around cackling like a bunch of hens catching up on the latest gossip and current events in the lifes of friends, new acquaintances, and anyone else that would listen to their tales of woe and misery.

Don't get me wrong, I loved that job and had worked hard to get the certification required to get it and was really disappointed when I was "reassigned" to another job at the same rec center.  One that was much less "fun" and much more "work".  Tending to the rental boats, repairing the leaks and holes in the fiberglass shells for same, repairing the small outboard motors, etc.  Much more grease monkey-ish, and with a lot less opportunity to cool off during the work day.

I eventually got back the lifeguard job as I did the rental boat job without complaint and proved myself to be a better "soldier" about things than had been assumed.  While I was the sacrificial lamb for not treating witchy woman like a princess, but I wasn't the only one to have "dissed" her that day.  I just happened to be the one that got to pay for it with my job.

It's been many (well, 30 is the right number) years since I had that job.  When it gets unbearably hot outside I think about it a little.  I'm many pounds heavier than back then, and don't go swimming as often as I either wear glasses or contact lenses and fear losing either into the water or get easily irritated by the water spots on the glasses when I come back above the surface as I swim.  I also have to fear too much exposure to the sun as I've had a prior bout of skin cancer and have a couple of spots that look as if they might bloom into cancerous spots later.  Unless I lather up in SPF-1000 (just kidding, I know, I know, SPF-35 to SPF-50 is about all the more you are supposed to do as the higher numbered stuff isn't necessarily any better and gives you a false sense of security in many cases.  The SPF-35 to SPF-50 stuff tends to include more effective and better ingredients, or so I recall hearing on the news a while back), I shouldn't put myself outside for long.

Perhaps in the future, if I can walk off some of the extra pounds I'm carrying around, I might go back and get re-certified as a lifeguard just to enjoy the challenge.  I might not be the most handsome or hunky lifeguard at the pool, but I'd still enjoy being prepared in the event something happened.

(For the record, I served in that lifeguard chair over several more seasons, did it proudly, and count at least one "save" in my record, though it didn't go further than having to help someone that had gotten into deeper water than they should and needed help to get back to the side of the pool...)