A spot where my dad brought my brother and I a couple times a month years ago...
images from distant memories
flooded my mind and excited my emotions.
Referred to locally at times as a "casino" at times, as a restaurant, but mostly as Radium Springs,
This spot was full of history and this is the spot where I learned to swim.
Mother Nature, having wreaked havoc on this incredible spot, closed it down.
Too much high water, a fire, more high water, high insurance, this iconic spot was locked tight
and sat inert for years.
But money from FEMA has been used to turn this once busy spot into a park just this year.
And so we visited...
What once was crystal clear and inconceivably ice cold is now filled with algae.
The sea shell covered bank, now covered with weeds.
The deep blue hole, that had existed under the diving board, is invisible due to
Mother Nature's withholding of sufficient rain.
As I stood on the island I noticed the old and the new - and not just the rock architecture.
I looked down...
And saw an "American" ladder - probably made in the USA. And I saw this on 9/11/10. An interesting connection, to me anyway.
As we left, I smiled, bringing with me the memories of sites now invisible, an incredible nostalgic feeling of having visited a spot no longer sitting inert, wondering if the past was the end, but seeing how it was the beginning of something new. A new influenced by the past, both worlds intermingled, bright and clear with a future still grounded in the community.
Joining in the fun at ABC Wednesday...check it out here for more sites to see
