Magrath Memories

[Roger]

My grandparents lived in Magrath when I was a child growing up in Calgary in the 60-70's (it took me a long time to grow up). We often came to grandma and grandpa's house for the summers. I remember the old Magrath Lions Swimming Pool (then located where the Wade Alston home is now). We would walk barefoot past the Trading Co on the hot gravel roads (to toughen up our feet) with a towel and swim suit in hand and stand in line to gain entrance to the facility. They had little wire baskets to put your clothes in and stored them for you in the office. You had to change fast so as to minimize your being a target of a wet snapping towel. There was a wading pool, a kiddie pool on the north end and the main pool with diving boards at the south end. I remember standing on tip toe and being just able to keep my nose out of the water - until my foot would cramp up from the strain - and that was in the kiddie pool. The life guards would require you to prove that you could swim the width of the main pool before you were allowed to swim in the bigger and deeper main pool. Eventually they passed me and we would spend time diving for treasure or playing keep away. I didn't like the high diving board much and only jumped off it a few times (it must have been about 8 feet over the water level). The low dive board was more fun. Even better, after a long hard day in the water was laying on the cement in the hot sun on a towel to dry off. Those were the good old days.