The Best College Swimming Pool.

lazyriverThe swimming pool at the RSF (Recreational Sports Facility) on the U.C. Berkeley campus is certainly much better than the average college swimming pool, but it is far from top of the heap. The best college swimming pool in the United States is probably the one at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Below is a photo of the pool’s indoor lazy river, which is lined with palm trees and passes under a waterfall. Students can also join an on-campus, resort-quality beach club called ‘Truman’s Pond,’ named after President Harry Truman, who lived nearby.

Michael Phelps and Meadowbrook Swimming Pool.

Michael Phelps is back in the news. He just won another important swimming competition, this time the Charlotte Grand Prix. That guy never seems to get old! Whenever I hear the name of Michael Phelps, I think of Meadowbrook Swimming Pool. Michael Phelps did most of his swimming at Meadowbrook when he was growing up, and now he runs the swimming school there. When I was a kid myself growing up in Baltimore, I always wanted to swim at Meadowbrook, especially on hot muggy days, and Baltimore gets a lot of hot muggy days in summer. Besides, our house didn’t have air conditioning. Meadowbrook had the biggest and best swimming pool in Baltimore, but unfortunately, I couldn’t go to there because Meadowbook was restricted.


Restricted. Most Americans today don’t know what the word ‘restricted’ meant back in the 1950s. When a business said that it was ‘restricted’, it meant that racial minorities and Jews were not allowed in. This largely came to an end in 1963 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. After that, businesses could no longer advertise that they were ‘restricted.’ However, private clubs like Meadowbrook were not covered by the Civil Rights Act and continued to be restricted. Meadowbrook did not allow Jews to swim in their pool, and they said so too. There was a big sign at the entrance to Meadowbrook that said that admission to the swim club was restricted to ‘approved gentiles.’ See the picture below. By ‘gentiles’, they meant white Christians, and not even all of them. Some white Christians were also not allowed in the pool,
like people with Spanish surnames. It didn’t matter where they came from.
meadowbrook
No Jews Allowed. In the Deep South, lots of businesses had signs in their windows that said ‘No Jews’, but not in Baltimore. Maryland was a slave state, but Maryland did not join the Confederacy, so the rules of racial and religious discrimination were not quite as harsh, at least in appearance. For example, the Baltimore Sun newspaper would not accept ads for apartments for rent that said ‘No Jews,’ but they would accept ads that said “Christians Only,’ and lots of the classified ads in The Sun did say ‘Christians Only.’


I assume that Meadowbrook is no longer restricted, but I am just guessing about that. I really don’t know. If you know for sure if Meadowbroow now allows Jews to swim in their pool, let me know. I have often wondered about this. There are many swim, golf, tennis, and foxhunting clubs throughout the South that still do not allow Jews to join.

Foxhunting in Maryland. English foxhunting is now illegal in England, but they still have foxhunts in Maryland. When I was a kid, I knew that Jews weren’t allowed to join foxhunting clubs, but that didn’t bother me. I would never have joined a foxhunt, even if anti-Semitism and money were not issues, and money is a big issue with foxhunting. Foxhunting is a very expensive sport. Fox hunters need a horse,  a stable, expensive custom-made foxhunting clothes, and they have to pay the cost of maintaining a large pack of hunting dogs. They also need foxes. You know, you can only use a fox once when foxhunting.

When I went to Boys Latin School in Baltimore, I had a friend there who went foxhunting every summer with his father. They belonged to a foxhunting club in Mt. Airy, a small town just west of Baltimore. My friend tried to get me to go on a foxhunt with him but it was a ‘no sale’ with me. I never had the slightest desire to participate in an English foxhunt. To be honest, I must admit that foxhunting does look beautiful in movies, but that is because in movies they never show the end of the hunt, when the hounds tear the fox to shreds. The end of a foxhunt is a horrible bloody mess. Here’s a video of a recent foxhunt in Maryland. Fox Hunting In Maryland. Doesn’t it look elegant?

Foxhunting in the Bay Area. There are no foxhunting clubs in Berkeley; however, there are several foxhunting clubs nearby. The Los Altos Hounds conducts foxhunts in Woodside in the coastal hills above Palo Alto. There are also foxhunting clubs in Marin and Solano counties. Jews are allowed to join foxhunting clubs in California. I know quite a few Jews who moved to California from the East Coast, but to the best of my knowledge, none of them moved here so they could go foxhunting.

If you decide to go on a foxhunt – remember – foxhunting is a lot more fun for the hunters and the hounds than for the fox.