KENDRICK PARK

Mary Alice Wright Gunderson,1953:

During our high school days the pond was stocked with fish.Once I caught one,put it into a coffee can and took it home and put it in the bathtub---but not for long.Thefountain there was beautiful in winter, frozen higher and higher like an ice cream sundae.A couple of years ago in the Fullmer Library,I saw a picture of an arched bridge and a pool. It strucka memory chord but what? Then my cousin and I remembered that therewas a stone bridge and a lily pond in the middle of the park.Remember the big merry-go-round that you could make hit the center post or wobble back and forth?And the water fountain with three different spigots on it-one was always plugged.You can still see where it was,though the circle drive and the ice cream stand edge over into that area now.Is nostalgia what it used to be?

Christy Ann Smith Watenpaugh wrote:The pond at the park was great.I have it on my parents old home movies.I also remember those bars that hung from the big pole.You had to hang onto the bars and swing out from the pole with your own weight off the ground.Sometimes you would swing back and gong your head a good one on the pole.Otherwise,they were great
fun.Lots of fun times at that park!

SWIMMING POOL

Ed and Jane Hartman wrote:
The pool in the park brings back lots of memories.I remember the summer I took Junior Lifesaving there and had free swimming for hosing out the dressing rooms.What was the man's name who ran the pool?  Mom finally made me stop cleaning the dressing rooms for nothing so I went back to Oklahoma. Carol McWilliams took my place.Speaking of Carol,I talk to her often.She could sing! Did a lot of Johnny Ray songs and sounded just like him. Ed remembers an indoor pool at the foot of high school hill.  He thinks it was closed down and became a city car barn.Wish it had been kept. I got to teach swimming at the new pool at the JuniorHigh.Boy, would we have enjoyed that.

Sam Day wrote: I have two remembrances about the swimming pool at Kendrick Park.When I was 14 I bought a motor scooter and put a cooler on thefront.I bought ice cream sandwiches,popsicles,etc. at wholesale from the Jersey Creamery.I sold them at retail at the swimming pool in the park.I had a big sign on the front called Putt Putt.Ice Cream,Another memory about that pool is that Louie Galloway,Dave Cormanyand I crawled over the fence one night about midnight and went swimming.Galloway had the canoe out in the middle paddling and  laughing when the police arrived.We all jumped out and ran up the hill by the buffalo pen and escaped.The police had theirspotlights on us and we had nothing on but jockey straps.What a wild night that was!

Ron Arnold wrote:Someone asked the name of the man that ran the pool at Sheridan.Wasn't that Silas Lymon? Kind of a heavy set man?

Mary Alice Wright added:When I read his name, I thought-yeah, Si Lymon or Lyman.I remember him.I also remember Irene Schlattman who taught Red Cross swimming lessons.First woman to wear a crew cut? She made you jump into the deep end of the pool, by the diving board.Made you flounder along, go under a couple of times while she held a bamboo pole just an inch farther ahead than you could reach.Some kids never cameback, after the introductory lesson.Irene also taught PE in thegrade school for a while.In later years Dick Hall ran the pool for many years.

John McWilliams wrote:Irene Schlattman still lives in Sheridan.  She taught girls PE for many years.She was well the last time I saw her.

Clara Blakeman Lehman  wrote:There was a Silas Lyman who came to Fremont County and worked as a school administrator.His wife,whose name may have been Doris or Dolores, taught in one of the Riverton elementary schools.He waskind of heavy set and every time I saw him, I thought, I've seen this guy somewhere before?I never did get it put together, but now that y'all have said that he managed the pool in Sheridan, I do believe it was the same man, and that's where I saw him before!Idon't know where they are now, but I think he retired when he finished here.

Regarding Mary Alice's comment about Irene Schlattman's making you jump into the deep end and sink or swim,-if you did come back and finish the course, part of the final exam to get your card was going up and jumping off the high diving board.I've never forgotten how far down that looked. That was my first and last trip up to the high board.I jumped, but I never went back up.I did decide one day that I could dive off the low board. I did the most complete, 100% belly flop anyone could have done.I heard the smack, and I was red, and stung from head to toe for hours.I never tried that again either.It was all I could do to cup my hands and fold off the edge of the pool. Think how it would hurt to belly flop with the amount of body surface I have now!

Ann Rhein Alsup wrote:Remember the rubber bracelets with the locker keys attached? We wore them around our ankles.Remember the chemicals we had to step in and out of before we got in the pool?

Milt Cunningham  wrote:Clara, before the new pool was built out by the Buffalo/Elk pens,we swam at the gravel pit owned by Basil Dean.Remember the nice sandy shore? We ice skated there in the winter. At the gravel pit they had a platform with a diving board, just a plank attached to it.It was only about 8 feet high.I was going to learn to dive but I was scared.I thought it would be easier to dive than to go in from a standing position.Of course, I belly flopped.Wow! To add insult to self-inflicted injury, while I was standing on the ladder toclimb out a turtle bit my toe. 

MEMORIES OF THE ZOO

Clara Blakeman Lehman wrote:"Remember the monkeys?" Their names were Maggie and Jiggs.

LeRoy Maxwell wrote:Remember the lion? His name was Major Sheridan. Major Sheridan, the lion, was someone's pet and was donated to thezoo when he got too big for the owner to care for.We used to go down to the zoo and tease Maggie and Jiggs. We would make faces at them and they would go ballistic. We had a lot of fun in thosedays.

Milt Cunningham wrote:Remember the wolves? I had an early morning paper route. An early train used to go through and whistle. I think it did not stop. It would get the wolves to howling and in about 15 seconds every dog in town was howling. It didn't last too long, but it added some pleasure to those early morning hours.

Christy Ann Smith Watenpaugh wrote: I remember Maggie and Jiggs and the lion and wolves. The city pound used to be right next door to the zoo.Once I left Hill school,borrowed Ann Rhein's lunch money, put it together with mine and took a dog out of the pound. I think it was a black lab.I had to walk to the courthouse to get a license before I could get the dog and take it home. 

 

The Fountain