If you grew up in Plankinton, your childhood memories of those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer likely revolve around ‘hanging out’ at the public swimming pool for long hours, day after day. Six decades ago, when today’s senior citizens, those in their mid-70’s, wore letter jackets and dressed up for Junior Prom, the people of Plankinton drew up ambitious plans to build a community swimming pool, to be placed within a beautifully landscaped park with picnic tables, fireplaces, tennis courts, and a skating rink. Their dream became a reality through the cooperative spirit of local citizens who donated materials and pooled their money, their talents, and their muscles “to give our children what most of us never had.”
As reported in the South Dakota Mail, in April of 1957, a group of individuals and representatives of several organizations in Plankinton formed a committee to make those plans a reality, including the PTA (Joyce Mortimore), the Board of Education (Bernard Dodd and Kedo Ketelsen), the VFW (Lex Weller and Chauncey Gerken), the City Firemen (Bud Tobin, Fritz Woodall, Kenneth Holmes), the City Council (Harold Watson), and the Conservation Office (Monty Montague). Bernard (Bud) Dodd, Bud Tobin, and Vince Harris provided the leadership.
After purchasing one full city block from Louie Hawkins, the committee deeded the land to the City of Plankinton, which then took responsibility for maintaining and operating the park and its facilities. Next, volunteers surveyed and cleaned the site, and then Arnold Lieckteig excavated the 40 X 80 footprint for the pool, laid down clay for tennis courts, and prepared the ground for a winter ice-skating rink. Community members, other than one paid project foreman, donated all the labor throughout the project.
In May, the committee announced they had received $3,000 in pledges. Over a two-year period, the group hosted several events to fill the coffers, including a community sale, a swimming pool party at City Hall, and the Cole Wild Animal Circus, designating a portion of the Circus ticket sales for the pool fund.
That same May, a call went out for 25 to 30 men to help “run the footings of the pool.” “Better bring a pair of gloves, says Lex Weller. Stated another way. This means that the bottom of the pool will be laid on Friday and some muscle power will be needed.” Twelve months later, in 1958, a news report provided a status update and announced another call for workers, “Any men who can do so are asked to report at 6:30 pm any day. The filter house is nearing completion. The inside of the pool has been treated with muriatic acid and the surfaces are ready to receive a coat of paint. Walls will be blue and the bottom white.” The committee requested donations of “Trucks donating hauling sand, rock, gravel. Help: Tying steel, leveling, packing, pouring cement, etc. This pool is for our children.” With those generous contributions of time and treasure, the community completed that project on a very small budget. On May 29, additional progress was reported. “The concrete walk around the pool was completed; filters and plumbing were installed; and the wading pool was completed filled with water.
In an agreement with the State Training School, located just outside Plankinton, the school inmates helped provide labor in exchange for their own blocks of swimming hours every summer. Hershell Page, then 34 years old, remembers working on the project with supervisor, Bud Dodd, “a concrete man”. Assigned to the task of moving concrete with the help of two teenagers from the training school, Page recalled his day of hard labor, “They couldn’t push the wheelbarrow, so I said, ‘Well, you guys put the sand and the rock in the cement mixer and I’ll push the wheelbarrow.’ I pushed it all day!”
Attorney General Phil Saunders spoke at the pool opening and dedication on June 29, 1958. Red Cross swimming instruction began the next day, taught by Keith Hall, a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan. So many people signed up for beginner lessons that four classes were scheduled for an hour each on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the groups were divided by alphabetical order for last names. For example, those whose last names fell between Justman and Nelson took the 11:00 am class. Three classes were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays; Advanced Swimmers and Advanced Beginners at 9:00 a.m., followed by Swimmers and then Intermediate Swimmers. Three adult classes were offered Tuesday nights; Beginners, Intermediate, and Swimmers. Some other early lifeguards were Patty Harris, Jim Graham, Jim Bob Tobin.
Sharing her memories for this article.” Stephanie Gerken Angelos recalled morning lessons in the unheated pool, “Is it just me or were the beginner’s swimming lessons always the earliest…when the water was ice cold. It seemed like torture at the time. All those skinny little shivering kids with blue lips.” Yes, the water was cold on many of those mornings!
Jim Page, Hershell’s oldest son, recollected the very first day of swimming lessons the year the pool opened, when he was six years old. “There were a zillion kids there. They told us to all jump in the pool and swim across. If you were a pretty good swimmer, you were in advanced beginners. And if you were me, you were a beginner!”
Jim also remembers talking to a future celebrity through the fence, a training school kid named Buddy Miles. “He probably weighed about 300 pounds and was 16 or 17 years old. We would ask him to do Jackknives or cannonballs and try to splash us as we stood outside the fence. He was very friendly and would always come over and talk to us. He later became a musician, was the lead singer with Santana for a while, and is the voice of the dancing raisins in the TV commercial where they sang, ‘I heard through the grapevine.’ He also worked and recorded with Jimmy Hendrix.”
Since it opened, the Plankinton public pool has provided the youth of the Plankinton area with exceptional summer recreation, while the swimming lessons have given those children a lifetime skill. Generations of swimmers hold fond memories of endless summer days at the pool. Sixty years ago, the citizens of Plankinton, wanted to give their children something wonderful. Their dreams, their belief in community spirit, and their love for their children built that pool. Today’s citizens sustain that dream. The pool is open. Come have some fun!
It Happened Right Here: “’The Pool is for Our Children,’”by Ruth Page Jones. Published in the South Dakota Mail, Plankinton, South Dakota, June 1, 2017.
Note: Among those working at the pool site were: Bernard Dodd, Lex Weller, Bob Scales, Bud Tobin, Monty Montague, Dale Weick, Ed Stiefvater, Ken Reed, Clarence McDonald, Delmar Nowak, Jim Smith, Bob Dunn, Ronnie Dodd, Richard Miller, Robbie Robinson, Doom Fitzgerald, Earl Wilkins, Ted Briggs, Lee Greenwold, Dean Houska, Charles Mines, Norman DeKay, Fritz Woodall, Merle Heezen, Russell Weller, Ronald Miller, Chauncey Gerken, David Lickteig, Grant Briggs, Hershell Page, Dick Scales, Leo Auger, Fritz Lutz, Don Auld, Dale Swanson, Curvie Johnson.
RPJ Histories - Ruth Page Jones 