Bethlehem Management Club

Where I swam competitively and to play golf -- not so competitively.

Summers in the 1960's were remarkable in many aspects. The emergence of a youth culture from the post-war baby boom, the introduction of the birth control pill, the explosion of rock and roll, the rapid expansion of television, the ongoing economic competitive edge the USA enjoyed following World War II -- all the and more made summer in the Sixties an ideal time to become a teenager.

Looming on the horizon as the decade began was the Vietnam war, with its draft, news accounts on evening television, protests, and domestic terrorist groups. Civil rights remained restricted, until a relatively meaningful bill passed in 1964. Yet racial stress and protests permeated much of the decade.

Being born in 1951 left me still quite young in 1960, yet made me into an adult by the end of the decade. What started with Little League and the World Series ended with the Jets winning the Super Bowl and my heading off to college. In between, there was middle school, junior high and senior hight, with all three of those eras wrapped up in Eden Central from 1963 to 1969.

By 1963, school was a responsibility, a habit. And that made summers all the more wonderful, when the sun stayed up late, the weather in western New York was ideal, and summers were pretty much care-free days. My first serious summer job was in 1969 when I spent the summer working at South Shore Country Club.

To fill that time and for my mother to manage ten kids while dad worked eleven hours a day, five and half days a week, the Bethlehem Management Club opened in 1960 and offered my mother the best possible daycare she could imagine. The pool opened on Memorial Day weekend and closed on Labor Day, perfect summer bookends. Many a day mom would round us up after our morning chores then head to the pool for the afternoon. It was idyllic and an earlier and better precursor to the practice of dum[ing kids off at the mall to entertain themselves, At the BMC we had adult supervision, beautiful facilities, four pools, competitive swimming, (what I imagined to be) cheap snack bar food.

By about 1965, my dad thought it best that I take up golf as the sport where business relationships were made, maintained and rewarded. Golf was frustrating game and one that had little appeal to a teen, especially when the alternative was to be lazy around the pool. Any time on the course meant time I could not be with friends -- and cute girls -- at the pool.