Did They Have These Problems????

Even though I'm back to school it seems like I can't get away from the pool. This time, though, my inability to leave it isn't work-related. Instead, it deals with where my class is located.

James Madison University was originally founded as an all-women college called The State Normal and Industrial School for Women in 1908. It was a small campus located in the Shenandoah Valley, tiny compared to what it is now. There were only roughly 13 buildings, all of which are still in use today (though all with renovations, while still keeping their original charm). Wilson Hall is the centerpiece of what is known today as The Quad, and if you look at it from there, you'll see Keezell Hall branching off to the right, and Maury Hall to the right. The hall we'll be focusing on today is Keezell.

Back when it first opened, Keezell Hall was the gym, complete with a large pool in the ground floor. Today, the gym is known as UREC, is located across campus (and across the interstate), and yes, it does have a pool. Keezell Hall has been renovated, and now serves as the home of the English and Foreign Language departments. My American Literature Post 1865 class is located in what was originally the well of the pool.

Upon hearing this, I was a little surprised; I'd never known there was a gym here before. However, upon surveying the room once more, it became all too evident to me that indeed this had been a swimming pool. Thus, I resigned myself to "another five months at the pool." As the teacher began her lecture, though, I found my thoughts drifting into a rather interesting direction... a direction I know all to well... a lifeguarding direction. I began thinking about pool chemistry, chlorine and pH. How did they regulate that back then? Did they have chlorine pumps like we have now? If so, how did they work?

While thinking about all of this, I couldn't help but to remember all the chlorine mishaps at Foxcroft. Did the pool here have the same problems as us? Or, maybe I should consider elaborating on what exactly a chlorine mishap is...

Commence Lifeguarding Flashback

It was a June morning when one of my guards, Melissa, and I were cleaning the hairstrainer. Everything had been going well- the pool was clean, the pressure wasn't too high and pool chemistry was perfect. Remaining optimistic, I put the basket in the hairstrainer, primed it, shut it and turned it on as Melissa walked out of the pump room. All of a sudden, a clear liquid starts shooting out of our return valve, and catches Melissa on her leg. She yelps, I yelp and we turn the pump off. Thus, I get the job of calling my supervisor and telling her what's going on.

Me: Hey, we've got a problem over here.
Supervisor: What's going on?
Me: Well, our return valve is shooting clear liquid at us everytime we turn the system on. It wasn't doing this until after we cleaned the hairstrainer.

My supervisor assures me that she'll be at the pool ASAP; leave the system off and run things as normal. Twenty minutes later, she shows up, and I show her what's going on. As soon as I turn off the pump, she gives me a look.

Supervisor: You don't smell that?
Me: Smell what?
Supervisor: That's chlorine spraying out of the tube.

As a lifeguard (and a history major with an interest in WWI) I'm well aware of the dangers of chlorine. It can give you a headache in small doses, knock you out with a large whiff, burn the lining of the lungs and your skin, and yes, it can kill you. All things considered, though, it's not nearly as dangerous as another chemical we have at the pool, muriatic acid, better known as hydrochloric acid (but that's another story for another day).

Immediately, the supervisor set to fixing out problem- the cracked feed tube. I left, and went through rotation. As I was sitting at the gate, my supervisor let me know she got the problem fixed. She leaves, and we continued running the pool. All day, though, we keep smelling chlorine near the pump room. Even I'm smelling it, and that's saying something. Finally, with a shirt over my nose, I go into the pump room and am astonished at what I see.

Chlorine bubbling from the same tube that was fixed earlier, just in a different spot. Sighing, I got and get my cellphone, once again calling my supervisor and letting her know what's up. She comes out and patches it with an all-mighty tool- duct tape. The seal holds (and has held since that day), and we leave at 8 when the pool closes.

Fast Forward 2 Months

I was running off of fumes when I unlocked the gate to the pool on a Friday morning, after attending a manager meeting at the other end of the county. The first thing I'm greeted with as I unlocked the snack shack was a large puddle of chocolate on the floor with ants all over it.

Me: Great. Shit.

Now, not only did I have to open the pool but I had to solve this mystery too. Somedays I hated my job.

Melissa came in, and we opened the pool, with both of us noticing a strong smell of chlorine again. This was weird. I checked all the barrels, the tube and the feed, and nothing was leaking. I decided it was from where I'd refilled the baby pool chlorinator with skimmer sticks earlier.

Two hours later, I finally discovered the source of the chocolate mystery. Our freezer hadn't been shut the entire way, and had slowly defrosted during the night, leaving all ice cream sandwiches to melt. Lovely. I got to clean it all up and move everything to the other freezer. As I was cleaning, I still noticed this chlorine smell. Once again, I checked the tubing, and found nothing wrong. Certainly I wasn't going insane- other lifeguards had mentioned it too. So, why couldn't I find the problem?

6 o'clock rolls around, and I happened to meander into the pump room to look for something. The overwhelming smell of chlorine hits me, and I look down to see the tubing that feeds into the return valve bubbling. Well, good to know that problem's solved. Now, how the hell do we fix it? We'd already cut the tubing once before when it decided to spew chlorine every where.

In the end, our other supervisor had to come fix it. It was patched quickly, though, and everything was Ok.

End Lifeguarding Flashback

So, now I find myself in yet another pool, albeit an emptied and renovated one for academic instead of professional reasons. It's a new place, and eventually, I'll get used to it (and the lack of windows). I don't like the room, and I don't really like the class. Despite it all, I know one thing. At least I won't have to worry about leaking chlorine tubes. :)