The swimming pool is tucked into the hillside of a mid-century subdivision and home of the Sea Dogs swim team. Josephine Zinger, Isabella Cain, Ru Robertson, Theodore Horvath and Emma Miller are the pool's newest lifeguards. The teens received their certification at the local YMCA this spring and have been working as lifeguards for the past 2 months.
Josephine Zinger: My parents kind of forced me to get a job and I just thought, 'I know a lot of people who work here and they all seem pretty cool,' so I thought 'Why not?'
Isabella Caine: I really like having a job outside. I’ve had multiple jobs that were inside and like as a teenager, especially as a summer job before college, it’s for sure you want to be outside with your friends — that's my favorite part.
Emma Miller: I like meeting all the kids here. I made a bunch of friends with some little kids here.
Ru Robertson: We have a lot of people from out of town, cause we’re one of the only pools like this in this area still open. We get a lot of people from Springfeild and Xenia.
Zinger: We had a lot of days earlier in the season where we just didn’t have anyone here, or had just a few people. And those days are always kind of hard to be here for, and it’s cold, so we’re all cold.
But now that it's getting warmer, it’s getting a lot better because there’s so many more people, and I like those days more because they are more fun.
Caine: Yeah I would say the days where it's more people are more interesting but it has gotten pretty hot. Some high UV’s recently and that’s been a little bit of a struggle. But we started to put ice in our laps and stuff when we’re sitting. And we get to jump in the pool when we’re off stand. So that’s always a great perk.
On this particular day there are no umbrellas over the lifeguard stands to protect them from the heat and sun.
Robertson: We do normally but they don’t cover all the way. So you get kind of weird tan lines. Because the sun will be on your legs but the rest of your body will be covered.
Theodare Horvath: The umbrella covered everything but my feet and my feet were burnt for a week.
Zinger: We do 4th of July midnight swims and we just did that. And then we rent out the pool at night, so last night we had a party and people were here until 11:00. We’re allowed to get in (the pool) for that so that's fun.
Caine: It can be very stressful because there’s a lot of people here, but it’s kind of cool to watch a mass group of people.
Robertson: I haven’t worked past [8:00 p.m]. yet because I'm [15-years-old].
Renee Wilde: So what’s it like to be an authority figure as a teenager?
Zinger: Kids just really don’t like to listen. I think I’m really approachable. But I’ll be like, 'Hey, don't be doing that,' and they’ll go, 'You're not my mom.' That can be a little frustrating because kids like to be your friends here too and not listen to you, even though you just don’t want them to drown.
Robertson: A lot of the parents also don’t listen. Like a lot of parents, adults will get mad at you.
Miller: A bunch of patrons who were middle school age were giving each other wedgies, and I had to tell them to stop giving wedgies in the pool, ‘cause it was a really awkward sight to look at.
Horvath: Probably the weirdest thing for me was when this really weird long hair dude ran into the girls bathroom because he’s looking for his girlfriend because she’s cheating, or something like that. And then the dude that she was cheating on with was here. And they got into this whole fight outside.
It was just crazy. There was a whole bunch of yelling. But they eventually left so it was all good.
If you know someone who does a county or municipal job that we should know more about, send me an email at rwilde@wyso.org.
