For Liz From the Pool

Hello Riders of the Pony,

It's been a while. How about Biz and Stefan's Halloween? I'm convinced that the kids they gave this Halloween experience to the other night will remember it as one of the coolest things to ever happen to them. They will. Sometimes the best memories as a kid were moments with an adult you crossed paths with briefly, but you never forgot them.

This whole thing reminded me of Liz From the Pool.

Liz was the life guard at our local pool and she was beyond cool. She would give me a spoonful of honey if ever I saw her (she swore by its benefits), she had gorgeous boobs I hoped to grow for myself one day and she always had the scent of Sea & Ski SPF 8 Lotion jumping off of her active golden skin. Liz was a Breck girl who wasn't afraid to get her hair wet and who would probably be up for anything (i.e breaking in to an abandoned house by the light of a full moon to tell ghost stories...stuff like that.)

One morning, my mother told me while rushing around trying to get it all together (on her way out to get her hair frosted I would imagine, which took a whole day back then) that Liz was taking me and some of the other Tadpoles (our swimming group for the six and under set) to see "The Apple Dumpling Gang". What? I was going to the movies with Cool Liz? I was going to the movies with Cool Liz! I'm pretty sure that every kid who went to "The Apple Dumpling Gang" in that group strategised a grand plan to be the one ending up sitting next to Liz in the theatre. In the car, I went over my plan meticulously: I couldn't be eager...it almost had to be accidental. Running into Liz was something that happened from time to time, but a whole afternoon of "hanging out"? This had to count!

When we saw that Liz had also invited a few friends of hers, (I'll call them Christine McVie from Fleetwood Mac and The Two Peter Framptons) we knew that the jig was up: this was probably a paid arrangement and she probably asked Fleetwood Mac and the Framptons along to help her keep sane while she watched a kids' movie with a bunch of chlorine scented brats. Our hearts sank a little, but it was still "great to be nominated".

What actually happened though was better than any of us could imagine: Liz made all five of us feel like her special dates. She never showed once that this might have been a drag. Fleetwood Mac and the Framptons couldn't have been nicer as well; they made sure that Liz sat in a seat where we all kind of felt like we were sitting next to her because she talked to all of us before the movie started and joked with us in her semi-tough chick rasp and laugh like a machine gun. The Framptons bought loads of treats (I'm pretty certain they were high) and we spent the whole of "Apple Dumpling Gang" passing tubs of popcorn and boxes of Razzles back and forth while giggling. Best Date Ever! (For a six year old.)

After the movie, she took us to a nearby park - the date wasn't over! She played tag with us while Fleetwood Mac and the Framptons tossed a frisbee around and before we were picked up back at the theatre at the designated time, we just sat on the grass for a bit "rapping about life, man" with Frampton #1. Liz put my hair in French braids (the oldest and most successful bonding technique in the book) and let me wear her mirrored sunglasses. The day was glorious.

And then suddenly, Liz was no longer at the pool. Not long after our day out, she moved. She didn't tell us she was moving, but taking "her Tadpoles" to the movies was her way of saying goodbye. My mother came clean after I asked where she was. She told the parents to not mention the move to us, but she wanted to make an effort to do something special. I cried for about a week.

She didn't have to take us out, no one asked her. On her own she made the decision to create an amazing day and Liz asking her friends to come along wasn't a move to keep her sanity, but to make the day more fun for us. I don't know if Liz remembers the time she made a small group of six year olds feel like Rockstars for a day, but I sure do.

And I'll never, ever forget it.
J.