# St. Patrick's Day Swim

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Posted by LeviLovR on March 20, 2024 at 10:10:27

To celebrate my Irish ancestry I booked a room at my favorite hotel - the one where I am welcome to swim fully clothed. It proved to be very different with a few small surprises.

As usual after checking in I headed directly to the pool area. I was wearing my usual stuff - black cowboy boots, indigo Lee jeans, a light blue shirt, medium blue tweed wool jacket. For something green I had on a green tie and a green cowboy hat decorated with gold shamrocks all over it. The hat was purchased at the local Wal Mart store for a few dollars. I was truly surprised to see cowboy hats next to the more traditional Irish style hats they usually carry, but apparently that was the "thing" this year as they had tons of them. Of course they weren't very well constructed and were made of cheap material, but they were cowboy hats and since the cowboy look is my thing I simply could not pass them by. Due to quality of the hats I had my doubts about how well they would hold up once they got wet and feared they might disintegrate and fall apart or that the brim would sag and become floppy and misshapen. So I bought two just in case. One would have been enough because it did surprisingly well much to my amazement and can definitely be used again next year.

The pool area was empty, which it often is when I first arrive, so no surprise there. But when I went in to check out the hot tub it was taped off like a major crime scene. Had somebody committed murder in the hot tub? No, but closer inspection revealed that the water was extremely dirty and unpleasant looking. Bummer! Just then the hotel handy man came in to test the ph and bacteria levels in the pool and kiddie pool and I asked him how long the hot tub would be closed. He said he wasn't sure but that he thought a pool maintenance guy was supposed to be coming in shortly to look at it. Apparently there had been some major partying going on the night before and the hot tub had seen a lot of use. He made it sound like a major mob scene and I imagine that it was. Since the 17th was on a Sunday this year most of the Irish revelers had done their celebrating on the 16th instead. I was kind of sorry I had missed it, it would have been a fun time in the pool.

Then things took a rather unexpected turn. A young man came in and went into the pool. He was of Latin American/Hispanic descent and spoke mostly Spanish. No real problem, I did get him to take a short video of me jumping in the pool but had a hard time getting him to take more pictures due to our lack of communication. He was joined shortly by his younger brother. They did not stay long.

Then the pool guy came. He went into the pump room and flicked switches and came out and threw some chemicals into the hot tub and turned on the jets and let it run through a cycle. There was some improvement, but not much. It really needed to be drained, scrubbed and refilled. No way would it be up and running while I was there. While he was there he went out and checked the filters in the pool. I did get him to take a nice video of me jumping in the pool. This guy was really into it and loved it. I think he would have stayed all night taking pics if I had asked him to, but he had work to do so I didn't want to bother him too much. I had a nice swim then went back inside the hot tub area to have a bit of a rest before going back in the pool.

Then two more Hispanic/Latin American men came in and again both spoke Spanish. One was dressed in a regular bathing suit but the other was decked out in a full set of sweats, which he wore into the pool to my surprise and delight. That never happens. They swam for a little bit and then the man in the bathing suit came in by the pool steps and said something to me which I didn't understand. I think he was inviting me to join them in the pool so I did go out and jump in again and swam with them for a bit. Then they left and I returned to the hot tub area to drip off before returning to my room. Then a group of kids came in, again Latin American/Hispanic. That's when it dawned on me: some of the immigrants who have been entering the United States from Mexico and South America have been transported to Maine's larger cities, Portland being one of them. Due to a lack of adequate shelter many have been staying at local hotels in the area until they can find proper housing. This must be a group of recent arrivals. I returned to my room for a shower, change of clothes and some dinner.

When I returned later that evening there were a few people in the pool. Portland has a large Irish population and St. Patrick's Day is a big thing here - not like Boston or New York, but still a big deal. Clearly I had miscalculated as the majority of the celebrating had taken place on Saturday this year rather than on the actual St, Patrick's Day. There weren't but a few people in the pool and since the hot tub was out of commission most just did a short swim and then returned to their rooms to warm up. Soon the children that I had seen earlier reappeared followed shortly by their parents with a small infant. The kids immediately jumped in the pool and I tried to strike up a conversation with the parents, but we really couldn't understand each other due to the language barrier. Everyone else had left and it was just us. Then the dad left and I said to the mom that I was going to go out and jump in the pool. She followed me out and stood next to me to watch. Just as I was about to jump she suddenly gave me a push into the pool, much to the delight of the children. We all laughed. I've always wanted to be pushed into a pool but this wasn't what I expected. The kids were tossing around a ball and they started throwing it to me including me in their game. It was fun and the water was very warm. Eventually the mom joined us too - fully clothed! We had a really nice time and stayed until the pool closed.

Rather ironic that I wound up spending an Irish holiday with South American immigrants, but they did know what the holiday was all about and wished me happy St. Patrick's Day. And we did have a good time despite everything. The world is an interesting place.

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- Re: St. Patrick's Day Swim Zonie 17:25:27 3/20/2024 (0)

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