Simpson’s Recreation Center

Simpson’s Rec was the place to go on a hot summer day when I was growing up. I learned to swim in its massive(larger than an Olympic size) pool. It had a diving board in the deep end as well as a slide. The bottom of the pool had cartoon characters painted on the bottom. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker and a bunch more as well as an image of Jaws with wide open mouth on the bottom right below the slide(I was scared to death to go down that slide when I was young because of that one, haha). It was surrounded on almost all sides by sand, and had a game room with pinball, foosball and some of the earliest arcade games. It had a snack bar where you could get anything from hamburgers to snow cones. It also had 3 ponds for fishing as well as a go cart track in its later years. I cannot express how many awesome memories come from this place.

Long gone are those days. These days my family often goes down to fish from the ponds in the summer but the pool itself has been left for nature to reclaim. On a recent trip I went inside for a quick peek. I was amazed at the extent to which nature has reclaimed the place.

This is a shot of eating area beside the pool. In its heyday they ground here was covered in sand that went almost right up to the water which was to the left.

The bench a table were definitely built to last.

These steps leading to the upper pond looked like something from a fantasy novel.

This is a shot looking down a walkway that circled the pool. The water was on the left with the sand behind the center blocks on the right. It was shocking to see the trees growing out of the concrete.

This is a shot of one of the skimmers that were built into that walkway I mentioned in the above shot.

This is a shot that you may recognize from an earlier post. It is of a house that is on the property. It was obviously in ruinous condition here, however this little house has been totally renovated (thanks to my Uncle) and there is now a bay window in place of the small window with the red curtains.

Another interesting feature of the pool is that my Grandfather hand painted all the signs and images that filled the walls and doors and the floor of the pool that I mentioned above. Below you will find just a few of the signs that I had a chance to find.

This first one is right at the entrance to the center.

This is a great example of the cartoon characters that my Grandfather painted.

This is a “don’t talk to the lifeguard” sign posted on the lifeguard chair.

This was on an outer door for after hours fishing.

This is, of course, the restrooms.

That is all I have right now. Unfortunately, I only had about 30 minutes to shoot while I was there and didn’t have a good wide angle lens. Both of these things will be remedied the next time I get down there, which I hope will be soon!