The sun was not blinding, but humidity hung thick in the air as 20 or so teenage boys waited in line Saturday for a chance to dive into cool waters. On its opening day, the Patterson Park pool in East Baltimore was hopping.
Shatira Evans, in a blue one-piece bathing suit, brought along eight children, ranging in age from 3 to 8, to swim Saturday afternoon. The group included her godchildren and cousins, and her 5-year-old daughter Kwaliea Vaughn, in a red-and-white-striped two-piece bathing suit and a rainbow of hair beads.
"They all whine me to death until I bring them here," said Evans. "They come every year, every summer. They love it here. They have fun."
"I was over here last week, and I had talked to one of the workers," said Evans. "I saw them putting the water in the pool and they said, 'We're opening this weekend.' And I said, 'Oh, I'll be there.' "
The Patterson Park pool, along with Druid Hill, are the first of the city's public swimming pools to open this year. The two Department of Recreation and Parks' pools will be open only on weekends from noon to 7 p.m. Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $1.50. The city's other pools will open in late June, at which time Patterson Park and Druid Hill will begin a daily schedule.
Baltimore pools weren't the only ones opening early. Around the region, pools opened to the public Saturday, including the Randallstown Community Center in Baltimore County and the Roger Carter Recreation Center in Howard County.
The early openings are a yearly sign that summer is near. But this season, they also come as municipalities are facing cutbacks and closings of some pools because of the economy. Three pools in Baltimore - Ambrose Kennedy, City Springs and the Cherry Hill Aquatics Center (an indoor pool that will be used for private rentals) - will not open this season and others have seen their schedules shortened from eight to six weeks.
Still, the early openings were a welcome respite from the heat and high humidity during the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Several patrons said they had been at the pool since it opened, and would remain until it closed.
"It was hot," said Keon Singleton, 14, explaining why he chose to go swimming. "This is the first day the pool opened. I had been waiting."
Because the pool at Patterson Park admits swimmers in shifts, depending on age, Singleton and a group of his friends from Highlandtown were waiting outside the pool at mid-afternoon while teenagers age 14 and older swam. He and his friends were killing time until 5 p.m., when they could get back in.
"We never get tired," said Kywon Pitts, 10. "We love to dive."
Anthony Henry, 9, wearing lime green-and-white-flowered swim trunks, chimed in, "I come every summer."
Some were less patient than others. D'Nique Maker, 6, her hair in pigtails, gripped the bars of the iron fence surrounding the pool.
"I can't wait to go in, I just want to put my feet in," Maker said. "I want to go back in."
