rodat6
28 posts
May 22, 2009
7:01 PM
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I learned to swim at Phillips pool, one stormy night around 1953 during a tornado warning I won a seasons pass, my number was called, it was the first thing I ever won, I was 11. We were an economically challenged family otherwise I would not have been able to go swimming as much as I did with a season's pass.
I remember the smell and although I was too young I remember the pin ball machines, the bigger kids played them. I remember Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, they came back from Florida every year all sun tanned to open the pool and live in the house next door. I also remember the hole in the back part of the girls dressing room near the swamp. Being a little kid I never took or got a turn and that did not affect my life to any degree.
I remember the caged public area and until I learned to swim that year I hung in the 18 inch section until a little girl took me by the hand to her mother in the public area and announced that I was her boyfriend. I learned to swim that same week.
The pool was on Leo just east of Keowee. I remember the smells the most.
Near there was a bike shop and they started selling English 3 speed racers, Dishon Bike shop I think was the name and I saved up some bucks from my Journal Herald route to purchase one which I did. I usually played and rode my bike in Clair Ridge Park near there, Stacy was the park director and she was very attractive and she and a bunch of kids including me would go to Phillips Swimming pool and swim. My mother worked at WPAFB since her divorce, she had to take a crash Greg Shorthand course to get a job as girl stenographer and she retired from there after 23 years but never received Social Security because WPAFB never withheld it. Strange but true.
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Becky73
106 posts
May 22, 2009
10:13 PM
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Oh, my gosh, Phillips pool. That is the name of the pool my Mother used to take me to. The year after I almost drown when pushed off of the edge of a dock , my Mother took me there for swimming lessons. To this day, I don't ever depend upon my swimming ability. I don't think I learned a thing. I was already afraid to put my face in the water much less open my eyes underwater. She tried.
You want some irony rodat6 - my Mother also worked at WPAFB, only as a telephone operator. She left for a job at Frigidare, probably after she married in 1945. You would think the job at an AFB would have a government pension.
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Marck1957
28 posts
May 22, 2009
10:27 PM
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I think it was Disher Bike Shop. I recall them selling Schwinn's bicycles, which were the Cadillac of kid's bikes.
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tlturbo
104 posts
May 23, 2009
5:45 AM
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My dad worked for the Air Force (WPAFB) as a Civilian GS 14 I think. I know he never got Soc Sec and isn't listed on the Soc Sec Death Index BUT he was on the Fed Gov pension plan. I remember after he retired in early 70's that it amazed me that he made more retired than I did working and I was a computer programmer. The Health Plan he had after retirement was fantastic also. Maybe your parents were NOT Fed employees but were contract employees or something. Otherwise I would think they would have been on the Fed Pension Plan.
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Mikey
9 posts
May 23, 2009
10:01 AM
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I lived in Westwood from 1946 to 1955. We had no-none-0 outdoor pools in the neighborhood. I rode the Delphos/Wayne bus ($0.10) to downtown and transferred ($0.01) to the Leo St. bus to go to Phillip's pool (Phillip's Aquatic Club.) It was the most fabulous, well-kept pool in town (except maybe the Eastwood Park pool that belonged to the city-but there was no bus service to it.) Phillip's pool was always absolutely jam-packed with swimmers and girl/boy watchers. If I had saved enough money I would get a burger, there was a really good snack bar/diner that could be accessed from either inside or by driving-up outside. I made this pilgrimage from the time that I was old enough to be on the town by myself until we moved to Huber South. Believe it or not...in 1952, mothers thought nothing about letting boys out alone at the age of ten or whenever they could read the bus destination banners.
Someone tell me. Was the admission fifty cents? Did we put our personal belongings into a wire basket for which we received a brass number on a safety pin? I'm trying to sort out the unfiled data in my head!
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Mikey, Gatlinburg, TN
Last Edited by on May 24, 2009 7:50 AM
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Becky73
110 posts
May 23, 2009
12:48 PM
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I remember the wire baskets and brass numbers on safety pins. Don't remember the cost to get in because I was never unsupervised and so didn't pay it. Now I know where to file that particular memory.
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rodat6
29 posts
May 23, 2009
4:53 PM
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I purchased a English racer, 3 speed from Disher's bike shop on Leo, was in a bike race at ClaireRidge Park on Leonhard and Webster and my strategy was to start off in high gear and I would beat everyone. Didn't work that way, the bike was new, wrong strategy, I did it the reverse of what I should have, came in dead last.
I lived at 62 Messina Place, McGuffey Homes, cardboard homes that came with a coal stove but a rich aunt bought us a oil stove, kept a pan of water on it when on to put humidity in to the air. Ate a lot of Blue
Bird pies.
Mother probably had a great pension, I was just living in Arizona where I still reside, spent the first 17 years in Dayton. I've attended 1 funeral in my life, that was in 1955, grandpa Bradlaugh Charlesworth buried in Woodland Cemetery, he retired as a proof reader for the Dayton Daily News.
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Arjay
7 posts
Sep 28, 2014
5:04 PM
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I went to Our Lady of the Rosary School in the '50s with
Billy Disher.He was a dwarf and a real nice kid. I too bought a bike from Disher's Bike shop and a season pass to Phillip's Aquatic club. I earned my money delivering the Dayton Daily News and paid for my bike and the season pass with my earnings. The DDN only cost 62 cents a week; 7 cents daily and 20 cents Sunday.
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bucknutz
5 posts
Oct 14, 2014
6:17 PM
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I m surprised that no one remembers how segregated Phillips Aquatic Club was. Or that Mike Schmidt was a direct descendant of Old Man Phillips.
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wolfcreek
82 posts
Feb 17, 2015
8:15 PM
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I bought (or mom did) my Schwinn Suburban english racer bike, forest green color, from Disher's Bike Shop. I still see some of those old green Suburban's popping up as vintage bikes and am always tempted to buy one, but nostalgia has its limits.
Never swam at Philips, but my parents were friends with the Schmidts and new Mike Schmidt since he was a little boy. I only remember eating at Jacks, the pool's restaurant. Great barbeque sandwiches.
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joey m
335 posts
Feb 18, 2015
8:35 AM
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Summer time in the early 50s my best friend and myself loved swimming and here's some of the places we swam. Old River which was in walking distance, Phillips had to ride bikes or take the bus, Oakday walked,Millers Grove my sisters boyfriend would take us, Miamisburg hitch hiked, and these two which I was told by my parents that I was never to swim in; The Miami River and the gravel pit that was where the now UD Arena stands. Wasn't very smart! !
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clamper
74 posts
Feb 18, 2015
11:06 AM
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I swam a few times at Phillips with friends but most of my time I went to Birchwood in Kettering
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Falconboater
10 posts
Feb 20, 2015
6:32 AM
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I grew up on Homewood Avenue. My Dad worked at East Dayton Tool. He would come home for lunch at noon and then we would all pile into the back of our station wagon and he would drop us off on his way back to work. At 5:00, we would walk over and he would bring us back home. I remember we would each get $.25. ($.10 for a one scoop ice cream and $.15 for a small coke). It was a private club so you had to buy a membership. Mike Schmidt's Mother and grandparents ran it. Mickey, the wire baskets you are thinking about were at Old River, not Phillips
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luv my dayton
870 posts
Feb 20, 2015
8:03 AM
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I am assuming the owner of Phillips pool was also who owned Phillips industry. For those who may have worked there did it offer employees free access to the pool or reduction in a membership as NCR did? By the way Clamper, if Birchwood was on Galewood in Kettering it is now gone and a seniors living place.. a number of swim clubs have gone mia in Kettering and just fond memories for us older folks.
Last Edited by luv my dayton on Feb 20, 2015 8:12 AM
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Falconboater
11 posts
Feb 20, 2015
10:57 AM
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Luv, your assumption is incorrect. The Phillips family solely owned the pool and the snack bar. The Phillips daughter, Lois Schmidt owned and ran the facility from the 70s until they sold in the late 90's. Lois Schmidt was the mother of MLB star Mike Schmidt who went to Fairview High School. I have a membership card from Phillips Aquatic Club that has his signature on it from 1978
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carlatm75
147 posts
Feb 20, 2015
11:41 AM
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About Birchwood Pool in Kettering, about ten years ago, the grandfather of my son-in-law bought the pool. It needed lots of repair work and we were all excited about helping out and working there once it was ready. But unfortunately, the contractor that was hired took the money and ran after only doing a fraction of the work. The grandfather tried unsuccessfully to track them down and recoup his money. In the end he had to cut his losses and sell the property to a senior housing development group.
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luv my dayton
872 posts
Feb 20, 2015
12:49 PM
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Back in 80s our family attended the church across the street from there. Later in being in the area saw the new place and had wondered what happened and now I know. Sorry that one you knew got ripped off. These people stay awake nights trying to get another scam going.
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