The pool was the focal point for many families during the 1960's and 1970's.
I know it was the center of my world during my youth and adolescence.
A few years back a friend from those days told me, and they were not exaggerating,
"The swim team saved my life."
That team, the practices and meets, and the community of people surrounding it, absolutely kept many kids on the straight and narrow.
Thanks to all the parents who volunteered their time and effort to send us kids off in the right direction.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Val Eshelman and Peter Smyth, two great fellows who left us too early.
The Pool Today (sad) The Tennis Courts today A Gallery of Swim Team Ribbons
NEW Nov. 2010
The Annapolis Roads Beach Club (1948)
NEW Nov. 2010
click here for
THE BEACH
Thanks to my folks, Al and Jane, for saving all the photos, articles, and ribbons for 40 years.
You'll notice a few things:
The club house is still there.
The pool and swim team were still very active for several years after the "country club" or "club house" as we called it, was torn down.
The snack bar in this picture (striped awning to the right of the club house on upper deck)
was later replaced with a cinder block building not much bigger than what is pictured above.
That snack bar was lock-able and served a wider array of treats.
Many of the swim team members worked there to earn some spare cash.
This is probably 1966.
Annapolis Country Club Swim Team 1967
Swim Meet.
The pool is 100 feet long, 33 1/3 yards.
This gave the ACC team an advantage because all the other pools
were either 25 yards or 25 meters long.
When we swam at their pools the race seemed shorter to us.
When we swam home the pool was longer than our competitors were used to.
Posing on the steps to the middle board which was only very rarely used.
You'll notice that there is no board in place.
Beneath the high dive were painted the team records.
Front row left to right
Laurie Ladd Jones (age 6), Suzie Gray (6), Christine Koeppen (5)
Back row left to right
Craig Bubier (4 1/2), Danny Jayne (6), Jeff Krissoff (6)
Every year at the end of year there was a swim team banquet.
There we received the medals we earned at the team championship
Front row left to right
Bruce Bubier, Wendy Frye, Nancy Gilhouly (not sure about the spelling)
Back row left to right
Duane Knuckles (or is it Duane Nuckles-I can't remember, sorry), Chris Soldano, Molly Malone
Swim Team 1969
A memory by Matt Jayne:
"You asked for them; my earliest memories are of ACCP. It was the day they had coins into the bigger pool for the bigger kids and had minnows in the baby pool for kids my age ( I was three or four ) As I was trying to catch a minnow, I dropped my sandwich bag that I was suppossed to catch the minnow in. I could not find the bag with all of the kids thrashing about and I started to cry. Someone ( I think she was an 18 year old life guard) said, "Did you drop this?" It was a sandwich bag with a goldfish already in it! "
Do you remember the 4th of July festivities? The turtle races, coin dive, watermelon war, relay races, and all the other fun?
Here are some pictures sent in by Jamie (Eshleman) Saacke
All are from 1972
1972 Team photo
Jeff Smythe, Mark Soldano
Deana Britton, Kim Eshelman (these are maiden surnames)
Jamie today with her old team sweatshirt and trophies
Jamie says, "This is my dog wearing Thor's (our boxer) banner that my mom made for him to wear at our swim meets."
| The sense of community | A REAL 40 hour work week | At-home moms | Dads who were always there for us |
| Free Time | Responsibility | Accountability | Understanding "consequences" |
| Lots of kids | Good Public schools | Timmy's (restaurant) | C & C (when it was just a convenient store) |
| The Pool (the focal point) | The Swim Team | Lake Ogleton | The Two Ponds |
| The Beach | The Field (L'Altura) | The Woods (Ogleton Woods) | The "bike-aility" of the community |
| Kites | fishing | Building Forts | sandlot ball games at "the field" |
Most importantly we had lots and lots of unscheduled, non adult-directed, free time.
Many people, but few educators, belittle the learning that goes on during this unstructured time away from adults when children have to learn on their own.
We had to make our own fun (and boy did we know how to do that).
Parents were NOT involved in everything we did. A child's world was his or her own.
We didn't have the internet or 100 TV channels.
The only video game was the pinball machine at Timmy's restaurant (now that Mexican place at the entrance of Annapolis Roads).
I do vaguely remember there being a real slot machine at the C & C, probably around 1964.
There were lots and LOTS of kids to play with - and play we did. (And with that play came valuable life lessons)
Things were very different for kids then.
And lest we forget, the freedom and responsibility our parents gave us. "Be home before dinner", we heard in the morning and they had no clue where we were or what we were doing. We didn't always make the wisest decisions, we did break the occasional bone or get the occasional stitch. If we did get caught doing something bad we knew we would be punished, severely.
The pool, as you know, is located at the back end of the community between Claibourne Road and Lyon Drive overlooking Heron Lake (we knew it as Otter Lake) and, in the distance, the Chesapeake Bay. The Annapolis Roads Swim Team or ACC Swim Team, or just plain ol' ACC, had many participants and coaches over the years. This old team is not to be confused with the current Annapolis Swim Team which is based at another pool that does NOT have a family of foxes as tenants.
If anyone knows when the last year the team and pool were up and running please email me. Thanks.
The Annapolis Country Club, or ACC, was not to this former child member, anything like what one now perceives as a "country club".
I remember my Dad telling me that pool dues were $125. Seems like a bargain today, but I also remember that his mortgage payment was around $200. Hmmmm, not so cheap after all.
Though it was rarely, if ever, called it, the Annapolis Roads Country Club was exactly that, or seemed so to this child's eyes, a club for the community. It seemed like all the kids in the neighborhood belonged to the pool and almost all of them were on the swim team. The pool, the club, "belonged" to the neighborhood.
A brief mention here of the communities of Carr's Beach and Sparrow's Beach. They were at the end of Edgewood Dr. less than a half mile away through the swamp at Chase Pond (called Beale's Pond way back when). Some good folks and our classmates lived there. Check out the Carr's Beach web site at www.carrsbeach.com
If you remember the two summers in the early 1970's when there were rock concerts at Carr's Beach you may want to check out this site:
Concerts at Carr's Beach (aka The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park) - this site is work in progress - as I get more info, I'll post it.
If you have any memories, or photos, or ticket stubs, or anything relating to the shows there, please email me
or...
www.bubier.net
for my family web site
If you haven't seen the Official Annapolis Roads web site
Check it out here
www.annapolisroads.net
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