First Round
Summer Of Lounge
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n June 17 at 11:30 a.m., I
gathered my sunglasses,
magazine, Tommy Bahama
beach towel, bottle of water, three
bottles of sunblock (you can never be
too careful), and headed to the pool to
greet the summer.
Hello, Summer!
Last year was my first year of meet-
ing the "pool posse," a sub-culture of
condo life.
The posse meets at the pool on
weekends, starting Memorial Day,
have cookouts and keep
in close contact with each
other during the week until
Labor Day, when like a ball
club at the end of the sea-
son, they shake hands, clean
out the locker/hang up the
towel and go home until the
next season.
But during those three
months, you have some-
thing to do besides work,
find shelter from bad
weather or go shopping.
I met more people in my complex in
one weekend last year than the previ-
ous two years of living there.
And there were some hard and fast
rules I had to learn.
Not my pool.
No running, no glass containers
and no work is allowed at the pool.
Every book must be a novel, and every
magazine needs a required ratio of
photographs or cartoons to be accept-
able — New Yorker magazine barely
qualifies.
Strenuous activity, i.e. answering
your cell phone on the second ring,
flipping over in your lounge chair too
quickly or swimming laps without
floaties is frowned upon.
Last year, my biggest pool activity
was teaching a bunch of neighbor-
hood kids the joy of Texas Hold'em
Poker. Sure, we only played for plastic
chips; but some of them were quick
learners, and I'll bet they tried to
sneak into the Greektown Casino dur-
ing winter break last year.
If they got your money, well, then,
I'll be charging for lessons this season.
Every Friday night since the
Memorial Day opener, I place my
gear by the front door and go to sleep
anticipating a perfect
day. Kind of like a kid
on Christmas Eve, only
I'm not a kid, I'm not a
Christian, and Santa Claus
is just another fat guy
with a white beard in a
too-tight bathing suit.
In general, summer is a
time to stay outside, slow
down and enjoy the time
between spring and fall,
when tree pollen doesn't
clog your head.
Television and sports executives
know this, too. Movie and television
stars are too busy marrying, then
divorcing, then having babies on
the rebound, to film anything worth
watching.
People are too busy
doing things to hide at
home and watch bad
TV. That's why we're
left with 24 reruns
and MTV's Battle of
the Road Rules/Real
World Morons. And
it's why we watched
Matt Lauer interview
Britney Spears or the
second episode of
Windfall about four
times last week
Even the sports are laid back.
The NBA and NHL seasons will be
replaced this week by golf and base-
ball — two sports that require lawn
mowers.
Summer isn't about activity; it's
about rest, relaxation and, uh ... I for-
get the other thing.
❑
Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com .