Having spent a lot of “hot summer nights” at the Tongala pool through December and January I felt qualified to make an assessment of just what they meant to the community, but I didn’t have a real fix on the other six locations.
I recently moved back to Tongala and one of the first things I did was purchase a season ticket to the Campaspe Shire Council’s outdoor pool — the same pool where I contested the Tongala Consolidated School sports and learned water safety in the summer.
Knowing how much I enjoy the pool, as do my tag-a-longs (the six- and nine-year-old children of my partner), I thought it might be worthwhile spending a few hours “testing the waters” of the other pool locations.
So I plotted a course and set sail for Stanhope, Rushworth, Colbinabbin, Rochester, Lockington, Kyabram and then finished off with a dip, when it was still 29℃, at Tongala.
Both my partner’s children sing the praises of the Tongala pool consistently enough to suggest it has a future.
Interestingly they have made friends at the pool (during the school holidays) with kids with whom they started at their new school last week.
It got me thinking there are probably intangibles, things like social interaction and a feeling of belonging, that go beyond the cost factor of the pool.
After speaking with seven different people from all pool venues, I realised the reasons for going to the pool were many — and varied.
At Stanhope it was a father and daughter who get some quality time together; at Rushworth it was a father with the challenge of controlling his three children; Colbinabbin was a grandmother and her three energetic “tadpoles”; for grandmothers Wilma and Barbara it saved them an afternoon of heartache in the form of bored grandchildren; while Lockington was a father repeating the history of his own first pool experiences; then Kyabram had me speaking with a former teacher who swims a kilometre every time she visits the pool.
But it was Sam, the son of my partner, who probably epitomises what the pool can offer.
The self-confessed “gamer” rarely turns down an opportunity to “go to the pool” and without the interference of a screen I can often see a different side to his personality.
Long live the Tongala pool.