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[joebanks]

Wallace Lake (again) Berea Oh c-1990


I used to swim here back in the early 70's, as my mother did 25 years before that, when "the gang from work" would climb into some cars and head out to "Berea Quarries" for a break from the city.

Before there were pools everywhere, this was a crowded place. The benches look the same as they did 40 years ago. The parking lot was cinders back then and you had to walk across it in bare feet to get to the beach. The refreshment stand sold these flat pieces of taffy that were like giant sticks of chewing gum, those big pixie sticks; and also the worst hot dogs around; you know, the kind with bits of bone in them.

The beach wasn't huge and so, at the end of the baby boom, it was always packed. The rope in the previous picture divided the lake, to cross the rope you had to pass a swim test, as this was the edge of the old quarry and the water got deep. They have paddle boats now, that we sometimes go out on and all these years, the life guards still yell through their cardboard megaphones "Off the rope"

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[k2rider78.livejournal.com]

Makes me long for summer picnics.