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Solutions to the Sizzle of Summer
Campbell community pool and air-conditioned stores keep family cool
By Moryt Milo
Now that my children are water-safe and the temperature gauge is showing 95 degrees in the shade, I wish I had bought the house with the air-conditioning and the pool. But instead, here we are, early in summer, second heat wave in full swing, and I'm deciding if I should go for shower number five.
Whenever we have weather like this, lots of heat and no evening breeze, it reminds me of my fall college days in Cleveland, Ohio. You could always count on Indian Summer to barrel through. It would smash us with sizzling temps and lots of humidity. And since our dorms weren't air-conditioned, the air would just hang in our rooms like a heavy wool coat worn on the wrong day.
To stay cool we either lived in the showers or the commons fountain, or grabbed ice cubes from the dorm's freezer to rub on our arms, legs and necks. Swimming in Lake Erie was not an option.
But that heat with its sticky humidity was a lot harder to bear then California heat. Besides, we don't live in Fairfield, we live in Campbell and it only lasts for a couple of days, right? This always seems to be the argument I hear myself saying when I contemplate if it's worth getting central air. We have ceiling fans in every room so that does help, but some times you just have to wonder, when it's 103.
There are a number of creative solutions to this problem. One of my favorites is going to Lucky's on the corner of Union and Camden. This store always has the air-conditioner cranked up high. I'm talking all the time. Even in the winter. But during a heat wave it feels like heaven. Besides, I'm always out of something. So it serves two purposes. Except sometimes it does that too well, when I linger too long enjoying the chill, and find myself coming home with items I would have never bought under different weather conditions.
Going into Longs Drugs on Bascom and Hamilton is a good alternative. They like to keep it nice and cool in there too. But again there's that purchasing problem. Wandering down aisles, buying things I don't really need. Barnes and Noble in the Pruneyard is another great choice. Cool air, comfortable chairs, lots of reading and iced lattes. But since I love to read I can never get out of there without buying something, usually a bunch of magazines. Hot weather can be downright expensive.
But there is one more solution that usually works and only costs a mere $1.25 per person. As soon as it's 2:15 in the afternoon, I can jump in the Campbell Community Center pool and stay there until 4 p.m. This option is good every day including Satur
days in the summer, which works out great for us folks who don't have a pool and aren't members of a club. My kids and I have gone there on many afternoons when they were not in camp and we needed to cool off or just have fun. This is also the place where my children learned to swim.
The Rec Center's swim program is one of the best around. The group sizes are small and instructors are good. But more importantly they are also very sensitive. That was the most important issue to me.
My children were leery of the whole idea of swim lessons. Yet not once did they have an instructor who pushed them beyond their comfort zone. I was very appreciative of this gentle approach. I'm not sure you'd find this philosophy everywhere. In fact my daughter even decided to join the swim team for a while. Why? Because she really liked to swim.
We have been spending hot days at the Campbell pool for about six years. I have seen the same families bringing their children year after year for swim lessons. We recognize each other's faces and comment on how big our kids have grown over the past year. It's a kind of summer reunion. It seems to be like an unspoken confirmation that summer in our town is officially here.
Nine years ago, I could have opted for that house with the central air and the pool. No doubt I'd be very comfortable right now, except for the mortgage, which probably would match today's temperature. But chances are I'd never have discovered all the opportunities offered at our community pool.
Moryt Milo, a resident of Campbell since 1990, is a frequent contributor to the Campbell Reporter.
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Campbell, California
