Thursday, August 27, 2009

Flint Photos: YMCA


With the best of intentions, I got a temporary membership at the YMCA when I was back in Flint this June. The place is exactly the same, and I mean that in a good way. Same gym, same locker rooms, same weight room, same immaculate pool where I learned to swim as a kid. One morning I went in and realized I was probably a little dehydrated after a night at The Torch, so I forced myself to drink about two gallons of water from this fountain. I went info the gym to embarrass myself on the basketball court, and when I came back this sign had been taped up. The torrential rains that flooded Kearsley Park had apparently caused some concerns. I lived to write about it, so it must not have been too bad.







3 comments:

  1. I remember going to a sleep over party at the "Y" in the early '70s. We were a bunch of 10 year olds, racing around, playing basket ball and dodge ball at 10pm, and watching bad horror movies and eating ice cream until 1am. Great times for a kid.

    I also remember jogging on that tiny wooden track they had on the roof. During the winter, the entire oval would be surrounded in heavy plastic wrap to keep the elements out.

    I do not miss the Flint winters...

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  2. The most polluted water in Flint is the kiddie wading pool at the YMCA... or is that the YWCA? The e. coli count in that shallow tub has to be off the charts.

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  3. Where I live now (Gloucester, MA) we've been ordered to boil drinking water for the past two weeks. Not just a Flint phenomenon.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.